Star Wars: Birth of the Ninja Nations
by Ninja Magic
Summary: Torn from his home, and cast into an unfamiliar and dangerous world. How will Naruto survive in the Galaxy Far Far Away? A Naruto/Star Wars crossover. This story starts between episodes 3 and 4. Discontinued, rewrite is up.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Star Wars. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, and Star Wars belongs to George Lucas.

Thoughts are underlined

Chapter 1:

The escape pod lay in the desert of Tatooine, its inhabitant at the moment unconscious, but a fact that will soon change. The person inside is Naruto Uzumaki, one of the last survivors of an entire world.

After an invasion by the Galactic Empire, the remaining people of the shattered world were forced to flee in the spaceships the attackers brought. They did not use their own spaceships for they did not have any.

Until their first violent contact with the Galactic Empire, their technology was of an extremely primitive state. However, the people have faced adversity before though not quite to this level for a very long time, and they adapted. They studied the stormtrooper's movements, they spied, they assassinated, and they stole and raided. After a kill they picked the corpses clean, and they learned. They learned how to use the blasters, grenades, and other technology the troopers brought. Using this technology in addition to their spectacular abilities they launched a major and effective guerilla warfare campaign.

Of the many different cultures and military powers on this world this common enemy united them in a way not seen for a long time and considering the circumstances will probably never be seen again. Naruto was a ninja, part of one of the three major official military powers within the Elemental Countries.

Ninja were trained since they were 6 years old in order to be lethal mercenaries. Their physical strength and speed was incredible, able to dodge blaster fire and outrun swoop bikes, as well as create massive craters in the earth with merely a stomp. In addition, they had access to an energy named Chakra. A force, which allowed them to perform supernatural feats, such as manipulate the forces of nature, create clones of yourself, and summon enormous beasts to do their bidding. They were trained to assassinate, to spy, to poison, to do whatever it takes to achieve their objective.

Originally wanting to take the planet intact in order to mine its plentiful resources, the long, frustrating, and costly invasion made Emperor Palpatine, (leader of the Empire), decide to cut his losses. Taking whatever of the planet's resources they could with them, the Imperial troops withdrew from the planet. The people cheered for they thought they have won, but I'm afraid not. Palpatine ordered the planet attacked by one of the only things that nobody on the planet had absolutely any defense against, orbital bombardment. It was a massacre; entire cities were wiped off the map in the matter of seconds. There was no warning, so they could try to defend, one second nothing and the next, fiery death rained from above. Knowing they had no chance, the people fled from the planet on the ships the troopers came in, trying to start their life anew somewhere else, promising in their hearts that they will somehow keep their way of life alive.

When the people fled, the Galactic Empire ships surrounding the planet shot them down. A mere fraction of the original amount of ships managed to escape being destroyed and went off into the depths of space. However, they knew nothing of the dangers of space, and their numbers dwindled even further. Naruto was from one of the many ninja villages, a ninja village called Konohagakure, which translated meant the Village Hidden within the Leaves, though in conversation it was often abbreviated to Konoha, or Leaf. The small handful of Leaf ships encountered space pirates and in order to survive they were forced to flee in the escape pods that were aboard. They scattered in every direction, trying to ensure that at least one of their number survived, and one did.

Naruto Uzumaki was 13 years old when he was forced to flee. He was a genin, a person of the lowest Ninja rank. He had in fact only finished his first C-ranked mission when the Empire struck. He had only a little combat experience, and until the invasion he was not really that skilled a fighter, though his instructors said he had incredible potential. Though all changed where the invasion occurred. Training for everyone was intensified and Naruto rose to the occasion, his abilities rising in leaps and bounds in order to deal with the crisis. While still of genin rank, his abilities were within the elite.

He actually would have been a lot more skilled initially if it wasn't for a certain event that happened in Naruto past. 13 years ago a nine tailed demon fox, (also known as Kyuubi), attacked Konohagakure. It seemed invincible, its power near infinite. Wounds inflicted on it would heal instantly regardless of how severe. Its massive size blotted out the sun, but there was still plenty of light. For light was caused by ninjas that erupted into flames when they got too close to the beast or its vile chakra. A swing of its tails could flatten mountains, and the killing intent it produced caused the minds of even some of Konoha's finest to break. 13 years ago in order to save the village from complete and total annihilation, the Fourth Hokage, leader of the village, sealed a nine tailed demon fox into Naruto at the cost of his own life. Kyuubi was sealed for it was unkillable. And it was sealed in Naruto for only the undeveloped body and mind of an infant could possibly adapt to the presence of such a creature. The sealing gave Naruto access to the fox's chakra, a fraction of its incredible healing rate, and unfortunately the hatred and loathing of the vast majority of the village. Naruto was stigmatized by almost everyone he encountered.

After the Fourth Hokage sealed the demonic beast in a newborn infant Naruto, the Third Hokage, (cruelly and abruptly taken from his retirement), thought that Naruto would be treated as a hero. For without him the whole village would have been destroyed, and whether he knows it or not, he had saved them all. So when Sarutobi presented Naruto to the citizens and ninja of Konoha, proclaiming Naruto as their savior, he expected cheers or applause. However, things don't always turn out the way you want or expected. The majority of the people of Konoha did not see Naruto as just the container for the beast, but rather the next incarnation of it. When they looked at Naruto, they did not see a boy, they saw the Demon, and they reacted accordingly.

Sarutobi when he witnessed the crowd below turning quickly into an angry mob knew he had to act quickly. It was at that moment he passed a decree. This decree stated the truth of the fox's fate will never be spoken, or revealed, or shown to anyone. Naruto and the demon will never in anyway be associated with each other on the pains of death. And any attempts to kill Naruto will be met with execution. The Third Hokage passed this decree, to give Naruto a chance at a normal life. Unfortunately it failed miserably. For there are many ways to hurt somebody, not just physically.

The people of Konoha hated Naruto, and tried to hurt him in any way they could. People would refuse service to him for the most absurd reasons, or they would sell him shoddy merchandise at premium prices. Sometimes they would sabotage the things they sold him, so they would later break. In the streets, Naruto was glared at and often _accidentally_ pushed or hit. Everyone knew the hits were intentional, (even the Hokage), but there was no way to prove it, so they continued to happen. In school, most of the teachers either ignored his questions, or turned it around on Naruto by mocking him, and asking him why he could not understand such a simple concept. They also would often severely punish him for the smallest infractions, sometimes real, sometimes not. But worst of all was the children.

The children of the village did not know the truth about Naruto and demon fox. However, they knew their parents and their families loathed him. They were constantly warned about him. As a result, the children either consciously or unconsciously started emulating their parents. And children can get away with a lot of things that adults can't. Most would shun Naruto and avoid him, but some would seek him out and try to beat him up or bully him. This happened a lot, as those kids were rewarded by their parents for it in private.

Naruto grew up completely alone, without friends or family, but fortunately through the sheer force of his will and his desire to be the best, over time he gained friends, allies, and the respect of most of the village. Though he was only able to enjoy his success for a moment before he and his people were scattered across the stars.

In any case, Naruto at the moment was unconscious in an escape pod. Caught in a nightmare about the hell he came from, and suddenly he woke up, to find himself gazing at the hell he came into.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Star Wars. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, and Star Wars belongs to George Lucas.

Thoughts are underlined

Chapter 2:

"Well, it looks like I am going to die".

After he woke up, and left the pod. Naruto gaped at the sight before him. He had grown up in the lush forests of Konohagakure, so the sight of the desert was shocking, but he remembered his training and started walking.

The first thing he noticed was the heat; it felt like he was in an oven, the vitality being sapped from him after every step. The deep sand enveloped his legs, and threatened to permanently drag him down into its depths.

The second thing he noticed was the cold. At night, the desert became an icebox. Naruto burned during the day, and froze at night. He seemingly had developed both Hyperthermia and Hypothermia. The symptoms he exhibited swinging back and forth between the two like a pendulum.

The next thing he noticed was the lack of water and moisture. This was particularly bad for him, as he was used to the humidity of Konohagakure. So he was dehydrating, and starting to hallucinate.

The final thing he noticed was the lack of food. Normally there was a lot of food in the desert, but in order to survive the sand he had to tap into the fox's chakra, which caused a constant wave of killing intent to radiate from his body, causing all animals within 100 meters of him to flee. The chakra partially sustained him, but his body soon had to feed on its own body's stores to survive.

The howling winds of sand lacerated his exposed flesh, and destroyed his clothing, which caused more flesh to be exposed. The wounds almost instantly healed because of the fox's chakra, but the constant stain of being injured, healed, reinjured, rehealed, put an enormous strain on his body, and made it ache. The worst thing was that often sand would get under his flesh as it healed, causing it to be trapped within. It then because of its proximity to the fox's vile, burning hot chakra, turned to glass. Shards of glass stuck all over and within the boy's flesh. Naruto gouged them out, and the wounds healed themselves almost right away, only for the process to repeat itself a few moments later. Though the worst of it all was his inability to sleep, for he knew that if he ever fell asleep, he likely would never get up again. Naruto also knew that a human body regardless of whether it belonged to a demon container or not, was not truly meant to wield a demon's power, and his prolonged heavy usage of it during his trek was slowly killing him. But he did not have a choice, for if he did not use the fox's chakra, he would die anyway from the sand. So the choice was to die fast or die slow, and Naruto wanted to live.

A week or so later, (Naruto couldn't be sure for his days has long since descended into a constant, burning, pain filled blur), Naruto knew he was going to die. He was lamenting all the things he would never be able to do, he never kissed a girl, he never achieved a higher rank then genin, he never became Hokage, though honestly that last dream died a long time ago.

He then saw buildings in the distance. He immediately thought it was yet another mirage or hallucination. He had experienced a lot of those during his trek. He would see friends, enemies, the walls of Konohagakure standing proud, tall, unbroken, and once even saw people that looked like what he had always imagined his parents would have looked like.

The images disappeared when approached, or moved away from him. Or even worse, they would not disappear or move at all, but rather appeared real in every way until Naruto ran up to it and tried to touch it and found that it only exists in his mind. Then he was forced to walk away, from what all his senses but touch perceived as his salvation.

But he had the feeling that it was not a mirage or hallucination this time. He didn't know why exactly, he just did. And whether or not it was an illusion, what choice did he have? Where else could he go?

So he headed out for the buildings he saw. They did not disappear or move, which was a good sign. It was at this moment that Naruto's legs collapsed, and Naruto's body hit the sand.

How easy would it be to just lie here, to let all my problems just end? What do I really have left to live for? 13 years of working, striving, and training. 13 years of attempting to earn respect and admiration. 13 years of hardship and pain. 13 years of striving towards my dreams. All of it destroyed in an instant at the whim of this Palpatine. Why couldn't he have just left us alone? All my friends are now probably dust, my beautiful home is probably now just ash. What do I have left to live for?

NO, I have never given up in my entire life and I am not starting now! If my dreams are destroyed I will make new ones. If my home is gone, I will survive and it will live on. I am Naruto Uzumaki of Konohagakure, a truth that always was, and always will be! Regardless of the pain, or the hardships I endure, my inner fire will forever burn. I did not fight and survive and struggle though a one and a half year long invasion just to **die** now to some **sand!**

With that final thought Naruto's eyes opened and with all his rapidly fading strength threw himself to his feet. His vision wavered and started to blur and swim, but Naruto continued walking on.

He, after what was probably a few hours of walking, came into a city. So it was real after all. Ignoring his surroundings completely, Naruto looked for shelter, and maybe food and water to consume. Eventually finding an alley he walked in. He saw some rotting food in a refuse heap. Naruto ate it all (his demonically enhanced metabolism should be able to digest it), and Naruto found a place in the alley that was shielded from the majority of the bite of the howling sands. And he slept.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Star Wars. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, and Star Wars belongs to George Lucas.

Thoughts are underlined

Chapter 3:

Crack

Even in the depths of a coma-like sleep. A ninja's instincts cannot be ignored. As soon as Naruto heard the noise with his extremely acute hearing, he awoke in an instant.

As he just was just abruptly woken up from an extremely long sleep, after not being able to sleep or maybe a week or more, Naruto thoughts were very frazzled and jumpy. He did not know where he was or what happened. But he figured he would figure all that stuff out after he dealt with the intruder.

While not using any unnecessary movements, Naruto opened his eyes and surveyed the area. He seemed to be in an alley and at its entrance there was a figure in tan wraps and robes. Actually they were the perfect clothes for surviving in a harsh desert environment, which struck a chord in Naruto for some reason.

Naruto could not see the being's face, but did note other things about it. Its body's structure seemed human-like; but not quite the same as a normal human being's bone structure. It was very similar, but it was just off a bit. It also had had more than 2 arms, which while not unheard of in the Ninja world was still really rare. In two of its 4 hands it held strange looking knives, which were, if his senses were correct… vibrating.

The figure after realizing Naruto was awake lunged for him, but even tired and feeling like crap, Naruto could handle some street thug. Lifting his right foot, which strangely did not have his usual open toed boot on it, Naruto rammed it into the thug's right kneecap. The audible snap that resulted made it clear what had happened to the joint. The thug fell to the ground with a scream and Naruto simply kicked his leg again, this time landing on the side of the figure's skull. Another snap clearly signified the end to this fight.

With the excitement over for the moment, Naruto tried to gather his thoughts.

What the hell happened? I was on a refugee ship. No I was in a desert... right? I don't remember. I think I was. I must have found shelter.

Having a general grasp of his situation, Naruto analyzed his personal status as well as his equipment.

I feel like crap. I'm starving, dehydrated, and hallucinating. Oh look, dancing ramem, wait that can't be right. 

My boots are gone, and my outer clothes are shredded. My armor appears to be in ok condition. And my hitai-ate is missing.

A hitai-ate was a cloth and metal headband that almost all ninjas wore to show to which ninja village they swore allegiance. Each village had an unique symbol that was inscribed onto the metal of the headband, which was what showed what village a ninja had loyalty to.

Almost all my kunai and shuriken are gone. And I am completely out of wire, smoke bombs, and exploding tags. I suppose I could make more tags.

Naruto's perverted sensei Jiraiya quickly learned that Naruto liked to blow things up, but unfortunately because of his _tenant_, it was nearly impossible for him to buy quality weapons and merchandise such as exploding tags. Thinking it would be a valuable skill for Naruto to learn, Jiraiya taught him how to make them. While Naruto wasn't that good at it, he did have motivation. I mean who wouldn't want to be able to blow stuff up with just ink and a little blood.

Uh… what now?

Thinking in the long term was hard for Naruto. He was very much a person of action, and tried to avoid planning or thinking if at all possible. Because of that Naruto was very bad at it. Not to say he was stupid, on the contrary he was pretty smart. He just had a lot of trouble focusing and paying attention, which in addition to a lack of social skills, tact, and much of the knowledge you would normally learn from parents or peers, made it appear like he was stupid to others. However, he is a lot better now than he was before.

Naruto's mind continued to run through possibilities.

Maybe I can relate my situation to a long term infiltration assignment. Ok... think, what do I know about infiltration? I guess the first thing I should do is find food, water, and recover health. I also should get money and build connections. I guess establish a role and identity in this galaxy for myself. Also, I need to gather information about the target and the galaxy. The target is obviously Palpatine.

White hot rage erupted in Naruto, but he beat it down.

With his mind made up, he turned his mind towards other sleep. Though first he had to do one thing.

He walked over to the corpse of the thug who woke him up, and started stripping the corpse of items. Hey, it not like he needed them anymore. Naruto found two odd vibrating knives, some cards of some sort, some jerky (which he quickly ate), and a small canteen of water (which he quickly drank). He, after some thought, decided to take the man clothes as well, while they would fit horribly and were way too large for him, they still would still offer more protection from the sand then he had already.

"What the…"

Naruto gaped at the site of the man's body. It was blue, with a face that seemed normal enough, except it appears that it had two giant tentacles growing out of it. What he mistook as extra arms were instead these fleshy appendages. Naruto immediately dismissed the sight as another hallucination caused by his lack of sleep, and ignored it when taking what he needed from the body.

After taking the items, Naruto stepped back and took a good hard look at the body, but he decided after a few very long moments he was not quite that desperate for food yet. Moving back to his sleeping spot, he lay back down on the ground (after he brushed away a few shards of glass that were there), and fell asleep.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Star Wars. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, and Star Wars belongs to George Lucas.

Thoughts are underlined

Chapter 4:

Without any noises, or presences waking him suddenly, Naruto's return to reality was relatively calm and peaceful, though still extraordinarily quick. As his eyes flashed open he reviewed his body's personal status again. While hungrier and thirstier than before, he felt a lot better. For the sole reason of being fully rested, his mind felt so much more alert, his body more powerful.

After checking to see if all his gear was still there, he climbed to his feet.

Now to find some food.

With his goals somewhat planned out, Naruto walked out of the alley way, his mind completely on food, well temporarily.

"What the Hell!"

It apparently was not a hallucination he saw before. In addition to people who looked more or less normal, there were people of every size, shape, color, and even number of limbs. After a few moments of gawking, which earned him a few dirty looks from some passerby that he easily was able to ignore, Naruto somewhat regained a semblance of composure.

This is not normal. Though given I have an immortal demon in my gut, I guess I'm not one to talk. I guess I've seen weirder.

Ninjas did deal with a lot of weird stuff in their lives. I mean while other people worry about their insurance, They had to worry about a guy with 6 arms trying to kill them with his spit or some psycho ripping their spine out and attacking you with it.

Ignoring the various oddities around, which was hard as they still freaked him out a little bit, Naruto looked for a restaurant, or a diner, or anywhere he could steal food and drink from.

He looked around, but most of the buildings looked exactly the same to him. They were dirty, covered in sand, and a tan color. That and the fact that all the buildings were short and squat, just made Naruto know that he would have a positively _wonderful_ time finding his way around and getting lost.

Stopping for a second, Naruto lowered his hood and took a deep whiff of the surrounding area. Since his senses were so sharp, maybe he could smell some food.

Unfortunately all he got was a nose full of sand, which was agonizing to say the least.

Ok, bad idea. I could ask somebody... I guess. Though if they were Imperials I don't think I could resist beating them to death, which probably would cause me problems. So... asking for help might not be the best idea. My hearing in this environment is crap, too much background noise. So can't track food that way. I think I smelled food before so I guess I'll have to……

I hate my life.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Star Wars. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, and Star Wars belongs to George Lucas.

Thoughts are underlined

Chapter 5:

Naruto crouched on the roof of yet another low, squat, tan building, gazing at another building in which his nose after a lot of pain eventually led him to. His nose still hurt a little, but that was not that unusual to be honest.

The fox's chakra may have automatically healed him from wounds, but the fox couldn't care less about his pain. And having demonic power roughly and forcible healing wounded tissue hurt like hell.

What now? I could just bust in and take all the food, but who knows what of security this place has. Maybe this place has got one of those giant AT-AT walkers, or a legion of stormtroopers, or something else even more horrible. Can't risk it. I need to figure out how to do this task subtly and stealthily. Man, I am the wrong person for this job.

Ok, um… um… I got an idea.

Leaping from his perch on this building's roof, Naruto landed on the ground, and he quickly moved to the diner's door. Opening the door casually, he looked in.

Honestly it is better than what he was expecting. It wasn't fancy, luxurious or even that clean by any means, but it seemed relatively sanitary. Also, it had a pretty good layout, though he didn't really care at all about that at the moment. He just care whether or not there was food, and there was. Scanning the room quickly, he sees his target.

It was a cook, or some kind of kitchen worker, and he was heading towards the bathroom. Bingo.

Careful to not attract to much undue attention to himself, Naruto strode to the bathroom and slipped in after the worker.

Stepping inside, Naruto sealed the door shut by wedging one of his wraps into the doorframe and into its gears. It would not stop anybody from getting in if they really wanted to, but it would slow them down. This action would have the added benefit of slightly muffling any noise that occurred.

Naruto waited for the man to finish doing his _business_. For there are just some things you just don't do unless you absolutely have to. One of those things is attacking somebody when they were _occupied_.

After the man was finished, Naruto casually walked over, pretending he had to go, and gently rapped the guy in the back of the head. The man hit the floor, and Naruto prepared to get to work.

Naruto focused his chakra, the energy that gave Ninjas their spectacular abilities, and formed a hand sign to help him concentrate the energy.

Henge

Instantly his form changed into a copy of the guy on the floor. The version of Henge he used was just an illusion, but the solid body form required a lot more power and while that technique might work better in this situation, Naruto really did not have that much chakra to spare, and the illusionary version would work perfectly well for his purposes.

For his plan to work, Naruto stripped the man of his work uniform and all his possessions. He studied the man's papers and identification. Then he picked up the man (whose ID stated was named Marcus Tavac) and placed him in one of the stalls.

Naruto put on the clothes.

The clothes don't fit right, but if I extend the illusion to affect the clothes, I could probably pass a casual inspection. 

Naruto frowned and looked at Marcus. He knew that at this point it made most sense to kill the original Marcus, but he really didn't want to kill anyone unless he had to. He figured the guy should stay unconscious for a few hours anyway.

Though what should I do about the robes? I guess I have to ditch them outside for now, and pick them later.

After he closed the stall door and with a little chakra welded it shut. Naruto then walked out of the restroom, (stashing in a pocket the wrap he used to wedge close the door), wearing features not his own, for all extensive purposes Marcus Tavac.

After stashing the robes outside on the roof, he casually walked into the kitchen as if he belonged there; Naruto gazed around the room looking for a mark.

He spotted a stressed out guy juggling a few platters of food, and Naruto knew he found his mark.

Walking over Naruto said, "Hey, what's going on?"

The man looked up, sighs, and said, "This is really not a good time Marcus. I am completely swamped with work, and on top of everything I got to deliver these platters to the tables."

Naruto replied, "I could take care of that for you if you want".

The man raised an eyebrow and stated, "Really? That is very uncharacteristic of you. Um... thanks... I guess".

"Your welcome", Naruto replied. His arms took the platters, as the man continued talking, "the platters are going to tables 4, 6, and 10. Please remember."

"Sure thing"

Watching the man walk off for a second, Naruto turned around and walked to the door, managing to steal some plate a cook was working on when their back was turned.

I think this plan is going to work.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Star Wars. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, and Star Wars belongs to George Lucas.

Thoughts are underlined

Author's note: Sorry for not updating for so long, but I had a lot of college work to do. Here's a long chapter to make up for that. Also, please check on my profile the challenge I am giving.

Chapter 6:

There was good news and bad news. Good news was that Naruto was full and not thirsty anymore. The bad news being that the diner he just visited was likely going to go out of business soon if it hasn't done so already. You just can't keep the customers when enormous quantities of food kept disappearing between the kitchen and the tables, as well as food vanishing from the kitchen when people's backs were turned.

Naruto felt a little guilty about the diner, but as he told himself, it was necessary. He also would have felt a little guilty about Marcus, except from his _work _in the kitchens, he found out that Marcus was a jerk, and as a result probably, in some way, deserved it.

He ditched the restaurant uniform, as it appeared to have meant only to be worn in indoor controlled environments. He, however, did keep everything else that Marcus had, which was basically just his ID and few of the same type of card he found earlier. Naruto made sure to keep the ID, for you never knew when a valid ID for someone else's identity might come in handy.

Now to find some information. I need a library or something. I guess I'll have to ask somebody as I don't think I can sniff out a book.

Naruto scanned the various crowds that traveled by on the dusty sand filled street. Trying as hard as he could to find a normal looking human. Not that he had a problem exactly with the unusual looking people around, he certainly wasn't prejudiced against them or anything like that, (it would be hypocritical of him to do that considering his life), it's just that with all the constant fighting, weirdness, chaos, and insanity that pretty much was his life for the last few years, Naruto needed right now for something in his life to be relatively normal. Also, he was just a tad nervous. By now, he had mostly gotten over his initial response to the various denizens of this place, but they still unnerved him a little, some a lot more than others, an example of the former would be a group of what looked like giant vicious humanoid boars with large axes.

Seeing a very large set human man walking down the opposite end of the street, Naruto rushed over to question the man and gather information.

Though mentally he winced, for he hated speaking Akuma no Boutoku, which was the language that the empire spoke when they invaded his home. He much preferred his first language of Tenkei. Unfortunately, as a result of the invasion, the ninjas were forced to learn Akuma no Boutoku.

After the empire declared its ultimatum of surrender or die, and later ultimately attacked. It soon became evident that while some of the imperial troops could understand the language the ninjas spoke, the ninjas could not understand them, which was a horrible disadvantage to have. So many individuals tried as hard as they could to learn the invader's language with limited success.

It was around this time that somebody came up with the nickname of Akuma no Boutoku for the Imperial language, and it stuck. Akuma no Boutoku, roughly translated, meant the "Profanity of the Devil", to contrast with this idea, people starting calling their original languages Tenkei, or "Heaven's Blessing". All languages of their world were classified as Tenkei, different languages were considered various dialects of the heavenly language. Naruto found Akuma no Boutoku a foul and unpleasant sounding language with too many bad associations with it for Naruto to ever be comfortable.

Naruto came up to the man.

"Hey do you have a moment?" Naruto asked.

"Why?" the man replied.

"I have a few questions to ask you" Naruto answered.

"I have a question for you too, which is why should I care?" the man asked.

"You want to help… out of the goodness of your heart." Naruto replied.

The man answered, "Funny, you a comedian or something? I'm not interested in answering questions."

"I'll pay you."

"Suddenly I'm interested."

Naruto reached into one of his pockets, took out some of the cards that he had "found" earlier, and put them into the stranger's hands.

I really hope that was money.

"So what do you want to know?"

Naruto replied, "Well, my first question is, what is the name of the city and planet we are on, and can you give me any information on it?"

"Ignoring for the moment the fact you don't know what city you're in, how the hell do you not know what planet you're on?"

"Answer the damn question!"

"Fine, you are in the _glorious_ city of Anchorhead on the planet Tatooine. In terms of information, I have lived here for 40 standard years since I was about twice your age, I know a lot about it, so you might want to be more specific."

Naruto asked, "Where is a bookstore or a library?"

The man stared, gawked, and suddenly erupted into laughter, "Sorry, you don't look like the reading type. Any way there's a library pretty near here. If you give me more money I'll tell you where it is."

Naruto gave him more money.

"Anchorhead has a small one several blocks north of here."

"So what direction is north?" Naruto asked.

"Directly behind you kid."

"Thanks".

"No problem. It was a pleasure doing business with you, you need any more questions answered?"

"No."

Turning around, Naruto ran north. Careful not to run too fast, because the last thing he needed at that moment was to attract too much undue attention.

* * *

He actually almost missed the library. It was sort of a ratty hole in the wall place. It sort of blended in with everything around it. The only reason Naruto could tell it was a library was that there was a small sign attached to the door. It said, "Anchorhead Public Library, open since year 20".

Well this is the place. So Naruto walked over to the door of the library, pressed a panel next to the door to open it, (when he first tried to open the front door at the diner it took him forever to figure out that doors in this place did not have doorknobs but rather were opened by pressing a panel), and walked in.

After he walked in, Naruto turned around and flipped a switch next to the door, which would turn on a closed sign. Naruto could not afford to let anybody see what he was about to do.

Where are the books?

Naruto picked up whatever it was on the shelf. He had absolutely no idea what it was, but it clearly was not a book.

It looked like a card, larger than the currency, (Naruto was guessing that was what it was), he handled earlier, and it also seemed to remind Naruto of a computer disk.

Assuming that is what it is, some kind of fancy computer disk, and the text or whatever is on it, how do I read it?

"Hello there, may I help you young sir?"

Quickly turning around, Naruto saw his potential assailant. It was the same _species_ that the mugger in the alley was. So largely human in appearance except for head tentacles, odd colored skin, and a few small differences in bone and muscle structure. Unlike the mugger however who had blue skin, this one had green skin. Also, this one was a lot older. If Naruto had to guess, he would put his green skinned acquaintance at about middle-age or maybe slightly later.

"Who are you?

The man replied, "I am the librarian. I noticed you were getting a little agitated, is there anything I can help you with?"

Thinking about it, Naruto decided to tell the truth, a monitored, occasionally altered truth, but a truth just the same. "Actually, how do you read the data on these cards? I am not from this planet and the format of it unfamiliar to me."

The tentacle man blinked in confusion and said, "Those are standard datacards, which can be read by any datapad. The formats of them are the same here as they are all over the galaxy. Where are you from?"

Naruto blanched (internally of course) and quickly remarked, "You misunderstood me, I meant I had lost my means to read what was on the card on my travels, and I was wondering if you knew a way for me to replace my lost equipment. Sorry, I must have misspoke. Nasty habit of mine, sometimes my mouth and brain seem to not to get along."

Please buy it, please buy it, please buy it.

"I completely understand. I sometimes have that problem myself. I also sell datapads, so if you follow me, I'll show you my stock."

To use a datapad, just slide the datacard in, and the text will automatically download to the datapad. You can find my datapad stock in the next room."

I really don't want to kill him, I have an idea.

"Excuse me sir"

"Call me Lagre'ido" Lagre'ido interjected.

"Lagre'ido then, I need to do something very important, but I can't let you see me doing it."

The man pursed his lips and thought for a minute.

"I suddenly remembered I have errends to run. I'll be back in a few hours... don't break anything."

"Thank you" Naruto told Lagre'ido. Lagre'ido nodded, and then he left. Naruto performed the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu.

The Kage Bunshin no Jutsu was a technique learned extremely early in Naruto's genin career as a result of events surrounding a treasonous academy teacher who manipulated Naruto to steal military secrets, the secrets in this case consisting of a scroll of forbidden jutsu.

Long story short, Mizuki (the traitor) ended up in a cell being interrogated for the rest of his life, which was not that long. Naruto gained a much closer friendship with his other former teacher Iruka, and Naruto learned a very powerful technique that was in the scroll.

The Kage Bunshin no Jutsu created solid body clones of the user and all information and experiences gathered by a clone was transmitted to the user upon the clone's death. The latter fact was very useful but dangerous as Naruto found out the hard way. Naruto learned that there are limits to how much information the brain can absorb at once, and absorbing the knowledge of 1000 clones at once was a bad idea. And when Naruto was in a temporary coma, Imperials attacked the research facility that he was supposed to be guarding.

A lot of good people died that day, and Naruto always blamed himself for that.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu"

A hundred Narutos appeared in the library, and they all simultaneously grabbed both a datapad and a datacard.

"Let's get to work".

* * *

A few hours later, Naruto gasped in surprise at information found in the datapad he was holding. Not that the other information he had found was not surprising or extremely interesting, for in reality most of it was. However, what shocked Naruto this time was the fact that he might have another enemy. During the attack on the Konoha refugee spaceships by the space pirates, Naruto had noticed a distinctive symbol. Naruto did not remember exactly where he saw it, but he knew he did. It was a strange symbol. It looked like a black eye or a star. According to a small paragraph under a picture of that symbol in the datapad he held, which did not contain a lot of concrete information, it was a criminal organization by the name of Black Sun.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Star Wars. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, and Star Wars belongs to George Lucas.

Thoughts are underlined

Chapter 7:

"Urgggg"

While the sound wasn't eloquent, it did express Naruto's thoughts extremely clearly.

I never want to read anything ever again.

Naruto might have been in knowledge/reading induced agony, but there was good news. Naruto was done. It took 14 hours to read through everything.

One of the things that Naruto did find was the perfect job for him. Out of everything Naruto found, this job fit both his set of skills and his experiences best.

I am going to become a bounty hunter.

Given his dislike of people bossing bossing him around and his hatred for the Empire, he figured he would become an independent contractor rather than joining a Bounty Hunter's guild or working for the Empire.

Naruto would have celebrated finding the perfect profession for himself, except his head really hurt. It was partially because of the clones, but it was mostly because he spent the last 14 hours starring at a datapad screen. But thankfully, now he was done.

With his research done for the moment, Naruto started to clean up, putting all the datapads back where he found them (except for one), and putting all the datacards back on the shelves.

He then walked over where he placed Lagre'ido to check on him again. Naruto didn't know anything about alien physiology, and did not want there to be any complications.

Naruto left a few credits on Lagre'ido's desk to pay for the datapad he took as well as to thank the man for what he did.

Now to find a cheap hotel or something where I can sleep. 

Leaving the library, Naruto sees a sign a block away for a hotel.

Naruto walked over and entered the building, and saw... a hotel lobby. Given the fact that Naruto was over a trillion miles from home, he sort of figured that things would be a lot different. Ignoring the technology and sand, things were really similar to the way that Konohagakure used to be. Naruto couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.

Shaking off the mild disappointment, Naruto walks up to the receptionist sitting at the welcome desk. At the moment she was reading a datapad. Naruto looked at the receptionist and tensed.

The receptionist was human...ish. She looked perfectly human to a casual observer, but Naruto's instincts were telling him she was not. Her hair might have been a little too coarse, her body a little too frail, her skin maybe a little too pale, but whatever the reason Naruto knew it to be true. His instincts were usually right, sort of a consequence of living through what he has. Ninjas without good instincts didn't live long. This woman by simply not being human was an unknown. Things that were unknown were, by definition, potentially dangerous. Naruto might have been a little paranoid, but paranoia was a healthy trait for ninjas to have. For just because you were paranoid doesn't mean there was not an enemy ninja about to rip off your face. It has happened.

In a bored drawl with obvious forced cheer that clearly revealed she had said the following words many times, the receptionist said, "Hello, welcome to Chorzo's Glory, where every day is a fun and glorious one. How many days would like to stay sir? I recommend a lot of days, for this place is real neat... I hate my job."

Naruto had the feeling he was not supposed to have heard the last part, but his sensitive ears still caught it.

"How many days can I get with this many credits?"

Naruto took out all the credits he had, and put them out on the table.

The girl reached over, quickly counted it up and said, "one day".

"Ok, I'll take that".

She replied, "Excellent. Here's your room key, and here is your change. I hope you have a great day." She handed Naruto a card, and about a quarter of the credits he had put on the table.

"Thanks"

* * *

Coming up to room 302, Naruto after a few minutes of confusion and scrambling slid his room key card into a metal device affixed to the side of the door, and the door opened. Naruto went inside, closed the door, and for the first time in one and a half years, Naruto relaxed.

That was a big mistake.

There is something you need to know about ninjas, especially during a time of war. They had a lot of emotional baggage. Friends dying, being interrogated by enemies, being betrayed by allies, killing... I know you might think that killing was easy for ninjas. I mean they were trained assassins, they were taught to kill from an early age. They can kill efficiently and with no hesitation. That doesn't make it any easier. Well physically it was a lot easier. In many ways the human body was very fragile, and a good ninja knew every possible way to take advantage of that fact. They knew thousands of ways to kill someone. Killing was not easy psychologically. To take a life, even when you know you had to, is one of the hardest things to do in the world. It was one of the reasons that the ninja profession had the most amount of people who snap than any other profession in their world. Most ninjas who last, find ways to cope with the various emotional stuff. They turn to porn, they take up a hobby, they adopt weird habits and mannerisms, etc. Maito Gai, (another ninja whose clan had inverted names), was a clear example of the third one. However, some ninja did not deal with their emotional baggage. They took their negative emotions and buried them deep in their minds, locked them behind walls, and tried to pretend they did not exist. Out of sight, out of mind. They did not want to confront those emotions, so they ignored them. Naruto was that kind of ninja. Without being dealt with, those negative emotions grew and festered, and without the constant adrenaline and activity of the war distracting him, Naruto's mental walls started to break.

Naruto's walls were not the best. Negative emotions often escaped his control, but he was usually able to contain those emotions and reseal them without too much fuss. This time, however, that would not be an option. If the amount of emotion that normally escaped his control was compared to a grain of sand, this here was the Hokage monument.

A deluge of emotions hit Naruto like sledgehammer, Naruto physically shook in the wake of it, and he felt emotions he had hidden away for one and a half years. Actually a lot than that, for Naruto also hid away a lot of his negative emotions while growing up. It was really the only way for a 3 year old to deal with the fact that vast majority of people in the village loathed him and wanted him dead. So when part of Naruto's walls broke, a lot of long buried emotions and feelings came to light.

The emotions that hit Naruto were quite overwhelming. There were just so much of them. He was overcome with feelings of hatred, horror, but mostly grief. A lot of people had died over the course of the invasion. Many of them were friends and loved ones. But above all he remembered the death of one of his most precious people, a person extremely close to his heart... Iruka-Sensei.

Iruka was one of the Naruto's teachers in the Ninja Academy. While in the beginning Iruka did not particularly like or dislike him, Iruka treated him fairly, he treated Naruto just like any other student, and that by itself made him better than about 99 percent of the village. Over the years Iruka and Naruto grew closer, and closer, until they had formed a bond that was a cross of father/son and brother/brother. Iruka saw Naruto for who he really was, and accepted him. With Iruka-Sensei, Naruto could feel for the only time in his life, that he belonged, that he was not being judged, that he had family. Naruto loved Iruka and Iruka loved him. It seemed to be a familial bond that would survive anything... it didn't.

Now all those buried emotions came bursting to the surface.

They're dead, they are all dead. I am the only one left, I am alone.

Why? I work for 13 years to gain friends and acceptance; I finally get it, and an evil, tyrannical, dictator from another world attacks the planet, and kills everyone. Everything I have worked my entire life to achieve is destroyed. 

Naruto's emotions turned to rage. He needed a release, he needed to cry, but Naruto was not able to cry, the ability to cry still entangled somewhere in the realm of his mind. Violence is another solution. Naruto took his pain out on the room. He smashed the walls, he broke lamps, shattered mirrors, but with every blow his anger and pain continued to grow. And his emotional walls continued to crack.

I will kill you Palpatine. I swear it. I will destroy you. I will mutilate you. 

But what good would that do? They will still be gone; they will still be all dead. Why should I keep living? Why shouldn't I rejoin my loved ones? 

Naruto's anger started fading away. It was still there, but for some reason Naruto could not feel it. He felt so cold, so empty. What's the use of doing anything anymore? Naruto did not recall lying down on the bed, but he must have done so at some point. Naruto, almost in a fog, continued to think, the remnants of his emotional walls breaking more with every thought.

They're all gone.

_Crack_

Everyone's dead.

_Crack_

I am all alone.

_Crack_

I am the last of my entire people.

_Crack_

I was not strong enough.

_Crack_

I failed again.

And with a final crack, the wall collapsed, and the full force of everything kept behind it, descended upon Naruto like a flood.

And Naruto wept.

* * *

I will kill you Palpatine. As you destroyed everything I loved and worked for, so will I destroy everything you worked for. I will bring your Empire to dust. You will pay for everything you have done. I accept this task not out for revenge, or for retribution. I am doing it for a higher calling. I want 

**Justice.**

* * *

Author's note: Somebody please take up my challenge. In terms of credit due, my line on paranoia is based on the famous line from Kurt Cobain, as well as from "Storm Front" the first book in "The Dresden Files" by Jim Butcher. Also, the last line of the chapter is influenced by the Marvel anti-hero "The Punisher".


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Star Wars. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, and Star Wars belongs to George Lucas.

Thoughts are underlined

Author's note: Sorry for the long wait. I had a really busy last quarter at U of O. As well as a teacher related issue. Slight bit of advice for anyone in college or going to be, look up your professors online before you decide to take their class. It will save you headaches. Also right now during Summer term, I am taking an Economics course. It is hyper-accelerated. Meaning it is 3 months of material, condensed into 1 month of time. As you can imagine, it is difficult. Sorry again for the long wait, here's a really long chapter to make up for it.

Chapter 8:

Naruto's return to consciousness was slow and painful.

What happened? Oh yeah, I remember now, I freaked out and destroyed my room. Guess I better get up and check the damage.

With a grunt, Naruto sat up, opened his eyes and groaned. The room looked like a disaster zone. Everything was either smashed, dented, and/or had holes in it. Naruto laid back down with a sigh.

Let's see if I can fix this place up a bit.

Few hours later, the status of the room had been improved and upgraded to a piece of crap.

Guess that is the best I can do.

Now without a convenient distraction to occupy his attention, Naruto was forced to turn his attention onto his personal status when he noticed that he wasn't wearing shoes.

It's true. Naruto had been so pumped up on adrenaline ever since he first woke up in the alley that he did not even notice. He would have grabbed shoes along with the rest of their clothes when he robbed Marcus and that guy from the alley, but, (if Naruto remembered right), the Twi'lek had no shoes, and the Cook had really bad foot odor because of some fungus that was growing on his feet. On the latter, Naruto had thought taking the shoes was not worth it.

Well Naruto needed shoes, so he pulled a piece of trash from the refuse pile he created cleaning the room, and performed the solid body variant of the Henge.

The technique's difficulty and degree of chakra expenditure depended on two factors. Those factors were 1) The degree in which the original object is different from the intended target in terms of size, texture, weight, composition, etc, and 2) the length in which you hold the transformation. Naruto could hold a small transformation, for example in this type of situation, for days.

Naruto's brow was slightly sweating, so he instinctually went to raise his hitai-ate so he could wipe it. Only to remember he no longer had it. That revelation sent a pang through Naruto's heart.

He was not upset about losing the headband, but rather what that headband represented. In particular, what it represented to him. It was the first time that anyone acknowledged that he had any kind of worth. The first time anyone acknowledged him clearly as not a pathetic waste of space or some type of monster. It validated his existence, gave him a concrete reason to continue living. And Iruka-sensei gave it to him. He gave Naruto the hitai-ate from his own brow. The metal was slightly dingy, the cloth was worn, and it had a few dents. It was perfect, and Naruto lost it.

The missing hitai-ate made Naruto remember a person he had lost. A person most precious to him.

Seconds later, wearing a new pair of shoes, Naruto walked out of the room. Some of his hard work fixing the room undone.

Justice will be done, no matter the cost. And may Kami have mercy on anything that gets in my way, for I won't. 

* * *

As Naruto walked down the street, his mind was tackling a new issue.

Now that I'm a bounty hunter, I need to find work. How do I do do that? Ok, calm down, and gotta think. I need to follow the money. A person got to have a lot of money to afford a bounty hunter. Also, rich people are often powerful people, and powerful people often have enemies. So I need someone rich and powerful.

Suddenly, Naruto's hand snapped downward and casually grabbed a hand that was reaching towards his empty credit pouch. There was an awkward silence for a few seconds then Naruto started laughing.

Out of all the problems that Naruto imagined himself having, being stolen from was not included in that. Also, Naruto was probably the worst possible mark for anyone to steal from, for multiple reasons. The whole idea of himself being robbed seemed absurd to Naruto.

The pickpocket was a human around 2 - 3 years older than Naruto. His baggy brown clothes practically hung off his tall lanky frame. His pants were so large that the only thing keeping them up was a coil of rope, which was being used as a belt. On his head rested a flat cap. The pickpocket at the moment was getting nervous as 1) His attempted mark effortlessly caught him, 2) his attempted mark would not let go of his hand, and 3) his attempted mark was still laughing. He started to chuckle awkwardly and nervously as he looked for a way to escape.

The other people on the street without missing a beat moved to the other side of the street. Other than that one change in movement, the people did not give any other sign they noticed what was going on. The truth was they did, they just did not give a shit.

"Ok listen up, I need information. If the info's good, I'll pay you."

Naruto let go of the aspiring thief.

"um... ok. What do you want to know?"

"First, what's your name? If I don't know I will probably come up with some kind of nickname for you, and likely a pretty insulting one. It's who I am. I'm Naruto."

"Tyren"

"Well Tyren, now to business. I need to find someone that is rich and powerful."

Tyren immediately responded, "For what reason?"

"Does it matter?"

Tyren replied, "Now that I think about it, I guess not. There is really one person that is the best to go to on Tatooine for doing any type of business, legal or illegal, serious or _pleasurable_... if you get what I am sayin."

"What are you saying?"

"You're kidding right? Um... just forget it. If you want to do business on Tatooine you need to see the crime lord Jabba the Hutt".

What the hell is a Hutt? Must be a nickname or something.

"Where is he?"

"Oh, start heading out of town, go 1000 kilometers or so, in a big fortress-like building, you can't miss it. But you can't just walk up to a guy like Jabba and demand an audience. You need an appointment first."

"I don't like beaucracy. I'll manage without an appointment."

Naruto reached into his robes and pulled out the rest of his credits.

"Here and a word of advice. If you're going to be a pick-pocket, please don't suck at it. You'll get yourself killed."

"What do you means by that. You catching me was a fluke, I am a master of the thieving arts. I am the incredible Tyren Helsyn, you may bask in my magnificence."

He tipped his hat in a semi-salute.

Naruto smiled, "you want a chrono?" Naruto held up a portable timepiece.

"Wow really, that's real nice of you. Sure I'll take it and… wait… that my chrono! Give me that!"

Naruto tossed Tyren back his chrono.

"You want a hat?"

Tyren slowly reached up and patted his now hatless head.

Tyren grabbed his hat back.

"You want some shoes?"

Tyren looked down and cried, "Oh come on! You have got to be kidding me! How did he…? Fine you got skills. Was there a point to that?"

Naruto gave back the shoes.

"Yes, yes there was. You suck. So either get more skills in this or do something else."

"Well you look and smell like crap. If you're going to see Jabba you better make yourself more presentable. The window for the hardware store to your left is a good mirror, use it as one.

"Won't the owner mind?"

"Yes, yes he will. But don't worry about it. The guy is old, has a bum leg, and he is a jackass so don't feel sorry for him. Thinks just because he won a few awards in some war, that he is better than everyone else. Arrogant pricks like him make me sick! Sorry about that. Just clean yourself up."

"Ok, see you later."

"Bye."

It took Naruto only a few moments to find the window

Wow, I do look like crap.

Naruto's hair and face were covered in some weird muck, an unknown substance whose exact nature Naruto did not really want to think about. His usually spiky blond hair was so laden down withso much various types of filth that it both laid down flat and appeared brown. It also was extremely long and tangled. His eyes were blood shot and sunken in. His robes were splattered with some of the same muck that was on his hair, as well as they fit him like a clown suit.

Naruto tried to clean himself up. He scooped/scraped out the worst of the gunk. For his robe he managed to improve it slightly by folding and tying off the extra fabric. For his hair, he tried untangling it, but eventually decided screw it and just chopped of about a foot of it using one of the vibrating knives he obtained earlier.

With his appearance as good as he felt he could make it. Naruto headed off to Jabba's palace.

It took only a few minutes for Naruto to reach Anchorhead's borders. It was then that Naruto started to feel really uncomfortable. His last experience out in the desert was quite painful and Naruto has a good memory.

Naruto stopped and took a deep breath.

A few minutes of regaining his composure, Naruto started to run.

Naruto used minimal amounts of chakra on his trek, as he wanted to conserve as much energy as possible for when he met Jabba. He didn't want to be all worn out when he introduced himself to an apparently really powerful person. He knew if he used chakra he could have cut the couple hour travel time in half, but he really wanted to be at his best both mentally and physically when he encountered the Hutt. He did however use one chakra based technique. It was a derivation of a common technique in Konoha known as Water Walking, which as the name sugggested allowed someone to walk on the surface of water.

In this case, instead of walking on the surface of water, he ran on the surface of the sand.

He really tried to prevent it, but Naruto's mind sort of wandered off about half an hour through the journey, and his body was pretty much running on autopilot. The desert was mind numbing and boring. Naruto realized that boring was not necessarily bad, because exciting can be a bad thing. However, that knowledge did not help him now deal with the monotony. The terrain was wide, open, and ignoring a plethora of low sand dunes, extremely flat. Naruto was not worried about running into anything, as the desert was so open he would see anything coming several kilometers ahead of time. So there was really nothing to do but think.

I'm hungry.

I could really use some ramen right now, maybe miso, or beef, or pork, or… all three.

Of course thinking of Ramen made him think of more loved ones he had lost.

Naruto was shocked out of his thoughts when his instincts started screaming. He snapped back to the real world to see a large furry creature ridden by a person in robes and a spiked helmet of some sort that were about 10 meters ahead of him and closing fast.

Crap!

Naruto swerved, his speed great enough that he barely avoided colliding with the large furry animal, which Naruto vaguely remember from his readings being called a Banthra or a Bantha or something like that. He passed so close to the animal that he could have touched it if he wanted to. The force of Naruto's turn kicked up a wave of sand that actually knocked the figure off his mount.

"Sorry!"

Maybe I should pay attention to where I am going.

* * *

A little while later, the ground started to get rockier, and it wasn't long before Naruto saw a path that lead to what had to have been Jabba's fortress.

He came up to the door; it was an extremely large imposing metal gate of some type. Naruto took a brief moment to catch his breath, and then knocked loudly on the gate. A hole opened up and a strange eyeball looking thing popped out.

What the hell is that thing? It is some sort of eyeball... thing.

The eyeball thing started making strange noises.

What's it doing? Maybe it's trying to communicate to me. 

"Hello… can… you…understand… me? I … want... to… see… Jabba?" Naruto spoke slowly and clearly, having no idea whether the thing understood him or not.

The thing rattled off a bunch of sounds.

"Do… you… speak… Basic?" Naruto had found out the proper name of Akuma no Boutoku was Basic, he personally was not a big fan of the name, but he supposed he had to use that name when referring to it in conversation with other people.

The thing said some sounds, he caught Jabba's name in there, so he decided that it did understand him.

"So will you let me in?"

It made more sounds.

Naruto made a guess here. He really wished he could understand the weird eyeball machine, (he decided it was a machine), "I don't have an appointment, but it's important. So are you going to let me in?"

"No"

Well that was clear enough.

"Just let me in you damn eyeball!"

The eyeball in response retreated back into the hole next to the door and closed the hole.

"Shit!"

Naruto knocked on the door again. Nothing happened. He pounded on the door as hard as could for a straight 5 minutes. In the end nothing answered the door, and Naruto's hand hurt.

"Oh you have thwarted me eyeball, I guess I will not see Jabba. I know when I am beaten."

He then casually made his way about 50 meters around the side of the building.

Henge

A tall red haired man with grey eyes walked to the door and knocked. The eyeball machine popped out.

"I would like to request an audience with the most honorable Jabba." Damn I forgot to disguise my voice.

The machine immediately tried to withdraw.

Not happening.

And Naruto lunged for the machine, and caught it… almost. He was just a tad slow, and the hole closed on his hand.

Ow ow ow ow, pain pain **pain!!**

Naruto pulled and twisted and finally after a few minutes his hand popped out. He immediately inspected it. It was scrapped pretty badly, and the bones were a bit crunched. So not that bad as far as injuries go. Naruto certainly has had worse. The Kyuubi's chakra healed it in a few seconds. Naruto's anger at the situation though allowed the vile chakra to go further than that.

Kyuubi's power exploded around him and he surrendered himself to the rage. The sane part of Naruto's mind tried to stop it, knowing the horrible effects the fox's power had on him, but it was like trying to use a leaf to keep back a flood.

And Naruto roared. A palpable aura of dread exploding from his body. All animals near the fortress started screaming and the smaller ones died, as the larger ones writhed and/or fled. The sand under his feet turned to glass than exploded. Naruto normally clear blue eyes turned blood red and slitted, Naruto's large canine teeth grew to fangs, his nails changed to claws, the whisker like scars on his face grew darker, and tendrils of red power spiraled around his body like a storm, with Naruto at its eye. With another roar, he reached out and grabbed the door, the claws digging deep into the metal, and he started to pull up.

At first nothing happened, but as more and more of the Kyuubi's power came forth, the metal started to scream, as the door was being forced against its gears. Power danced over Naruto's body and the surrounding area. Slowly a millimeter appeared between the bottom of the door and the ground, then two, then three. With a final screech and snap the door slammed into the ceiling, its gears broken. And Naruto stepped through, the force of gravity pulling the door shut behind him.

Naruto stood still for a second in the tunnel he found himself in and then jerked his hand out and grabbed the eyeball and with a grunt ripped it out of the wall. He then melted it to slag. Throwing the slag aside, he started moving forward.

Guards started to appear. The guards were large pig-like creatures. They were frozen by Naruto fear inducing aura for a second, but they shook it off, and attacked. It was admirable that they were more loyal to their employer than they were scared of Naruto. Stupid as all hell, but admirable nonetheless. The first two that reached Naruto swung their axes, only for Naruto to catch the axes right behind the blade and throw the two guards over his head, where two tendrils of power impaled them to the ceiling. Then the tendrils withdrew and as the guards started to fall, Naruto swung his newly appropriated axes backwards slamming them into their heads, and sending them flying into the door 2 meters back.

Naruto continued to walk forward, the stone hissing and steaming under his feet. The next pig guard who reached him, too stupid to learn from his brethren's failed attempt, swung his ax.

Naruto swung the ax in his left hand out and snagged the opposing blade. He then pulled, yanking the guard off his feet. Then with a swing from Naruto's other ax, the guard's body hit the ground, his head landing a few seconds afterwards.

The next two guards were grabbed and choked by tendrils of power, slammed together, and then hurled into the walls of the tunnel.

One guard's head exploded in a shower of red as two thrown axes collided with his skull, the force picking him of his feet and pinning his head to the rock wall where he hung suspended.

Two of the guards squealed then fled. Tendrils of power instinctively flew at them to snare the fleeing prey, but Naruto forced the power back. They weren't his concern; his concern was anything that got in his way.

The final guard leapt at Naruto, his ax held high. In response he lifted his right arm, mixed Kyuubi's chakra with his own, and fired.

Naruto's chakra had a natural wind affinity, which meant he could perform wind jutsus and techniques both stronger and easier than people without a wind affinity can. Naruto could even perform some wind techniques without any handseals, which were necessary for most other chakra related techniques. The thing about wind, and consequently oxygen; you mix it with fire such as from Kyuubi's power, and what do you get?

The meter wide gout of flame sprang from Naruto's palm and collided with the pig guard in mid leap, the force thrusting him into a wall, where he stood suspended above the ground consumed by flames.

It took about 10 seconds for the squeals to stop, but Naruto or more precisely Naruto with a mind warped by demonic chakra, held the flames further. It could be a ploy after all, maybe it was playing possum.

Naruto killed the flames and continued forward. The sound of Naruto's bare feet, (the henge had long since dispelled), meeting the blood and gore soaked stone resounding all through the empty tunnel, well almost empty.

A person was a Twi'lek, grayish peach skinned in color. He actually looked like he might have been someone important, or at least he would have looked so if he was not frozen in apparent terror. Naruto decided that he could be useful.

As soon as Naruto looked at him, the spell of fear apparently broke, and he started to run. He quickly froze again as Naruto send a surge of Killing Intent towards him.

Intent was by far the most commonly used technique of Ninja, as well as a bunch of other people. However, Killing Intent was by far its most popular varient.

The art of intent was essentially the ability to project an emotion or feeling into another people's mind and thereby force it to react in a certain way. In this particular case, by paralyzing the target with fear.

With the Twi'lek frozen by Killing Intent, Naruto moved. In a blur he appeared in front of the target, grabbed his collar, and yanked his head down to eye level. The Twi'lek's neck already started to blister.

"Take me to Jabba the Hutt". The voice was harsh and guttural, but still perfectly understandable.

The man sputtered something in another language. Naruto thought it was the one the eyeball spoke, he wasn't sure, and honestly he didn't care.

"Speak Basic".

The Twi'lek swallowed and switched to Basic.

"Wh-what is your business with Lord Jabba?"

"None of your concern."

"I am Lord Jabba's Majordomo, it is my business to know. If you do not tell me, I cannot take you to him."

"Listen _friend_, I **am **going to see Jabba. Now that can either be **with** you or **though **you. Your choice.

"I will take you to Lord Jabba".

Without a source to feed it, Naruto anger started to recede, and rational thought began to return. As soon as it did, Naruto realized a very important fact. He was an idiot. Not just for losing control and killing loyal guards just doing their job, but also because he had most definitely screwed up his first impression. I mean he busted into the guy's place, ruined his door, his eyeball machine thing, killed his guards, and likely caused his Majordomo to have a partial mental breakdown. Not exactly the best first impression.

Ok, I think I might be able to salvage this… maybe. I just got to be careful not to say or do anything stupid.

* * *

Holy Shit, it's a giant slug!

I mean seriously, that thing is huge. I thought it was a nickname. And... I think I just said that out loud. Jabba look pissed.

I am so screwed.

* * *

As I was asked. Here's a rough age chart. Currently Naruto is 13 years old. Luke and Leia are 9 years old. Han is 19 years old. Obi-wan is 47 years old. Vader is roughly 32 years old. And Palpatine is 72 years old. And if anybody cares, Yoda is 886 years old. Also, the year is 10 BBY.

Here's a quick summary of the timeline for convenience. The invasion occurred between the end of the Wave mission and the Chunin Exams. It lasted a year and a half. The various people of Shuuyoujo, (my current idea for the name of the planet, tell me what you think of it. It means in Japanese "Home"), thought they had won until the Empire attacked them with Orbital Bombardment about a week later. The people are forced to flee the planet. The people from Konoha run for a few months before being attacked by Black Sun Pirates. Naruto escaped in an escape pod, and landed on Tatooine where our story begins. Naruto is 13 like said above, but more exactly he is 13, nearly 14.

I am someone who strongly believes it is important for a writer to have a good rapport with their readers. I also really want a good rapport as I want to know what you guys are thinking, what questions or issues you have and so forth. So if anybody ever has any questions about anything having to do with the story or its altered chronology, feel free to ask me. I will try as hard as I can to send the answer to you right away.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Star Wars. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, and Star Wars belongs to George Lucas.

Thoughts are underlined

Words in '…' are words spoken in Tenkei.

Author's Note: Hello, welcome to the next chapter of BotNN. I have posted another challenge on my profile if anyone wants to take a look at that. Now I will answer a question which has come up a lot in reviews. Pairings. I do plan on having pairings, and I have a rough idea of who is pairing up with who. But things are still very much in the planning stages and therefore potentially subject to change. I can't tell you more as it would spoil some plot points. Though I can say that I believe that romance is probably not going to be a major part of the fic. My current plan is for this story to concern mostly how Naruto makes his way through the galaxy, the effects he has on it, his fight against the Empire, and coming to terms with his loss and the hatred he feels for the Empire. As well as healing from his experiences. Enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 9:

Naruto figured that after his first impression with Jabba, that things could not get any worse.

Apparently he would be wrong about that.

After the horrible beginning, things actually looked like they would turn around. Naruto was lead though some tunnels by a Twi-lek who quite frankly looked like he had seen better days. Not physically, though he didn't look that hot that way either, but rather mentally. Though to be fair it wasn't everyday that that your life was threatened by a demonic teenager. Or maybe it was, in which case life in the galaxy outside Naruto's homeworld was ever weirder than he previously thought.

As Naruto followed his reluctant guide, he ran over ideas in his head about what he was going to do. Unfortunately for him most of his ideas fell between stupid and very stupid. He was actually thinking about a way to spin breaking into the place as a compliment when he walked into a large chamber.

The first thought that raced through his mind was that this place was huge as well as incredibly humid. Naruto later learned Jabba kept his fortress humid and moist with humidifiers so he wouldn't dry out. Then he noticed the fact that the said gigantic room was packed with people. Some of which gave him the creeps, namely a humanoid with grayish skin. The guy looked at him in a very strange way. If Naruto did not know any better, (and honestly he actually didn't), he would say that guy looked hungry. That and the observation of Naruto that something appeared to be moving under the skin of the guy's nose. Or at least what looked like a nose. Naruto made a mental note to avoid him if he survived the meeting with Jabba.

The final thought was, of course, the thought which made an already bad situation so much worse.

Holy shit, it's a giant slug!

* * *

Crap, I wish I had some salt.

Jabba suddenly starting making strange noises and moved his arms wildly.

Ah hell! The guy's having a seizure. I just know I am going to be blamed for this. 

"The great and powerful Jabba inquires what you just said".

The voice drew Naruto's attention to a figure standing next to Jabba. It appeared to be a man in full silver body armor. But considering how artificial the voice sounded, it was probably another machine like that eyeball thing.

Wait, Jabba was trying to communicate. I guess that makes sense. Now that I think about it, the sounds do seem kinda like what the Majordomo said. But how could he not have understood me. I think I said it pretty loud. Unless… I instinctually said it in Tenkei. Oh, could I be that lucky? One way to find out. It's time to lie through my teeth and kiss ass.

"Most esteemed Lord Jabba. The words I used when first witnessing your magnificence was 'Holy shit, it's a giant slug'. It was spoken in the native language of my people. Translated it means… Greetings and salutations most honored one. It is a phrase of great respect from my home planet.

And I always loathed all the syphocants which clung to the Hokage's heels, trying to win his favor through flattery and lies. I hate irony.

"Lord Jabba inquires why you paused for a second before providing the translation?"

"My lord, I'm afraid my native language of Tenkei does not translate perfectly into the Basic tongue. For instance… the words "a giant slug" roughly translated is most honored one, but the word 'slug' has many meanings, which depends largely on its context. I merely paused so I could provide you the most accurate definition of my praise when entering the presence of your … eminence."

Damn I'm good.

Jabba spoke again and the metal machine man translated, "The glorious and revered Jabba the Hutt asks then why you were so surprised when you saw him?"

"Lord Jabba, I have heard tales of your glory. Your glorious... Huttness. Stories and legends are told of your majestic personage. But I was not prepared for the real thing. The tales pale in comparison to your splendor. I am afraid I lost… my composure in face of your glory."

Naruto suddenly got an idea.

"In fact any pauses or hesitation in my speech is because I am in such awe from being in your … venerable presence. I have been rendered partially incoherent from my exposure to your sheer… awesomeness."

Awesome! The best word I can come up with is awesome! What am I… 8?

"The illustrious Jabba admires your ability to grovel."

_Thanks._

"The wise and powerful Jabba asks you why you broke into his fortress."

"My lord, my name is Naruto Uzumaki and I am a bounty hunter. And… there is nothing I would like more than to serve you. I have wanted to work for you for so long, I'm afraid that when I was refused admittance to your fortress, I lost control at the thought of not being able to be at your side. I beg your forgiveness, Lord Jabba."

Jabba suddenly burst into a deep booming laugh which sent a shiver down Naruto's spine.

Did he buy it?

"Lord Jabba expresses admiration for your dedication, as well as your fighting prowess, and decrees that you are forgiven for your transgressions, under one condition. Though the most honored one cares little for the things you have destroyed. He does care about the money you have cost him. And therefore demands compensation.

Compensation? 

"Lord Jabba has ordered you to work off your debt. After which all will be forgiven and you will be granted a position within his employ".

I guess that's not that bad. Could definitely be worse.

"How much?"

"Lord Jabba most graciously demands an amount no less than 100,000 credits".

100,000! That's… that's… better than what I thought would happen. At least I'm guaranteed employment.

"I agree with your most gracious terms Lord Jabba, what is the first task you wish of me?"

Jabba bellowed out a command, and one of the people inside the room quickly ran out and grabbed a datacard, then returned to the room and gave it to Naruto.

Jabba then started talking, so Naruto waited so the machine could translate.

"Lord Jabba assigns you to track down and retrieve one Jasati Tarlo, a human agent of Jabba who has committed a most heinous crime against my lord. You are to find him, and bring him back here alive. If the man dies, the honorable Jabba will not mourn his death, though you will incur my lord's displeasure. It would be a shame if your working relationship with Lord Jabba turned out to be a short and unpleasant one."

Message Received.

Naruto popped the datacard in his datapad to get more information.

As previously said, the man's name was Jasati Tarlo; a mid-level overseer for several of Jabba's operations on Tatooine. 2 weeks ago, one of Jabba's accountants discovered an imbalance in the numbers for one of the crime lord's most recent operations on Tatooine. Not wanting to reveal this to Jabba without something positive to report. He spent the next two weeks tracking down and following the figurative paper trail; which led him to Tarlo. Tarlo had skimmed a sizable amount of money off the top of the operation, and considering the skill in which he did so it was unclear how long this has been going on. The accountant immediately reported what he found. Jabba received the information around 20 minutes ago, which when Naruto thought about it might be why Jabba looked so pissed before.

After thinking a second Naruto asked, "What will be the degree in which this job reduces my debt?"

"500 credits"

500 credits. I don't know how much these credits at worth and other financial stuff. But there are two options here. He is either cheating me or giving me a good deal. If he's giving me a good deal and I ask for more money he gets angry, which is definitely not a good thing. However, if I don't ask for more money and he is cheating me. Then he'll keep doing it, and I'll be stuck in debt even longer. And even after paying off the debt, it might seriously hurt future earnings. What's the bigger risk? Future risk, or immediate risk? Hmm…? I think I am going with…

"I humbly request the sum of 1500 credits be deducted from my debt on completion of this assignment."

Jabba roared and spoke angrily for about 30 seconds.

"Lord Jabba expressed his outrage at your audacity."

No real need for translation there.

Naruto's courage wavered a bit under the stare of Jabba's baleful orange eyes. But Naruto just gazed back.

Naruto worried for a second whether he pushed it too far, but Jabba's next words when translated reassured him immediately.

"1000 credits will be deducted".

"Thank you for your generosity most honored and gracious Jabba."

Ok, now to track this guy down. I got to get out of here. I feel a tingle down my spine. Like someone is watching me a little too closely for comfort. Probably just paranoia brought on my nerves, but can't be too careful.

* * *

It turns out not to be just paranoia, as there was a certain grayish skinned humanoid watching him very carefully.

What presence. What powerful presence. His power is divine. What glorious soup he must have. Rich in Luck. So intoxicating it made me the fool, causing me to react. Finally this is one worthy of my attention and time. But he dwells too deep in Jabba's gaze. I am not fool enough to trifle with his _lordship_. But soon his favor will shift, and his attention will wander. A day, a month, a year, it makes no difference to me. I have lived and waited a thousand years, and I could wait for another still. Soon Naruto Uzumaki, I shall feed.

* * *

The glass formerly filled with alcohol crashed onto the bar, and a hoarse voice croaked "another". The used glasses were put aside where they resided with their many brethren, and a new glass was filled for the Sand Storm Cantina's newest patron.

The mission was not quite as easy as Naruto thought it would be. The tracking was easy, the retrieving was not.

After leaving the Jabba's fortress, he took some time to really look over the info in the datacard instead of running off half-cocked, which admittedly Naruto had a tendency to do. After analyzing the data he came to two conclusions. First, Tarlo was still on the planet (good thing, as Naruto did not have a ship), and the second conclusion was where Tarlo could be found.

The conclusions were actually easy to reach. For the first, from the datacard, Naruto extrapolated that Tarlo was a man who enjoyed his comforts. He enjoyed his power, and if he were to go anywhere he would only go if he took that power with him. Even if Tarlo had found out he was wanted by Jabba for a _talk_, there was no way he could in the short amount of time shifted his entire power structure off-world. So that means until his power was liquid enough to move, Jasati was still on the planet.

The second conclusion was even easier. According to his psychological profile, Tarlo enjoyed two things more than anything else in the galaxy. Drinks and women. You could find both, (often of dubious quality), at a bar, which for whatever reason was called a cantina here.

So Naruto created a hundred clones and intended on systematically searching through all of the cantinas in each of Tatooine's cities. All of the clones all together searching one city at time, until it was confirmed Tarlo was not there then moving on to the next city. Naruto eventually after about 12 hours found Tarlo in a cantina in Bestine, Tatooine's capital. Naruto was lucky that Tarlo was in the second city he searched.

Tarlo was not hard to spot. He was lounging in a booth in the back of the cantina talking to a guy that just screamed lackey. Tarlo had a drink in one hand and an unknown species of whore on the other. Yeah… I think I found the guy. Naruto checked again the picture of Tarlo shown in the datacard just to be sure. Confirming it was his target, and Naruto started to plan how to nab him.

The biggest problem was the fact that there were so many people. The cantina was packed. If Naruto went for Tarlo now, it would cause too much of a fuss, too much chaos, too much trouble that Naruto neither needed nor wanted. He figured the easiest thing to do was just wait until Tarlo left the cantina and just retrieve him then. While waiting Naruto decided to order a glass of alcohol, mostly out of boredom. He had never tried any alcohol before, though he was allowed to. In Konohagakure as well as the rest of the ninja villages a ninja was considered an adult as soon as they achieved a rank. If you were old enough to kill, you were old enough to get drunk. And those concepts were not exactly mutually exclusive. Though Naruto had never had a drink. He felt it was time to change that. The bartender was hesitant to serve alcohol to a 13 year old, but some credits changed her mind. Money was a universal lubricant, easing the process of all types of transactions the whole galaxy over. Everyone understood money, and it served very well to make legal dilemmas less of an issue. However, there was a problem with Naruto's waiting plan. Three hours later, Tarlo was still there.

The bartender looked at the kid slumped over her bar.

"You sure about another drink? You even good for it?"

"I w-want another drink. Don't worry. I am good for it. I have the money." Or at least someone else does.

"Fine, you're the boss".

Taking in a glance the 20 or so previously filled glasses next to Naruto's elbow. She murmured softly the question "how the hell are you still conscious?" She didn't think anyone would hear her, but Naruto did.

"I have my ways."

The bartender was shocked, and decided to go back to washing glasses after giving the boy his drink. It may have been boring and monotonous but it at least made sense. Not like a 13 year old who could drink 20 something glasses of hard liquor and still carry on an understandable conversation.

Naruto turned back to his drink. The stuff wasn't bad. Not super, but it was at least something to do in his boredom. The stuff didn't affect him that much. He had the suspicion the Kyuubi was keeping his mind clear. Besides the drinking experiment, which Naruto was reasonably certain he would never do again, the only other thing which helped a little bit to satisfy Naruto's boredom was a short conversation he heard about how something called Jawas were having a big swap meet like thing.

Naruto eventually decided he had enough. He would go over there and try to make Tarlo leave the cantina somehow. His plan not very thought out, but honestly most of his plans never were. Naruto got to his feet and started walking forward.

Why is the floor moving?

Naruto had taken about a dozen steps when the Kyuubi decided to take that time to cleanse what it perceived to be a poison out of Naruto's bloodstream.

An aura of Kyuubi's power blasted from his body. The Kyuubi was hard at work burning the alcohol out of Naruto's system, which unfortunately let off a wave of Killing Intent which hit every person in the cantina.

Most of the species here had not been prey for thousands if not millions of years. However, long dormant instincts awakened, as everyone perceived that a predator was near. Everyone froze. Hoping their lack of movement would prevent the malignant beast from making them its prey. Some couldn't even move if they wanted to, the fear completely turning their limbs to stone. As the fear raced through everyone's mind, hopelessness continued to climb. What was the use of it all? What was the use of living? They were just going to die, killed by the beast among them. Some of the glasses in people's hands shattered as their hands spasmed, and some parts of the floor got a bit dirtier. But almost completely simultaneously everyone turned their head towards Naruto.

Naruto now completely sober and alcohol free sighed.

Well so much for the hassle-free stealth approach. Time for plan B.

And as Naruto dashed forward, the people started to scream, and pandemonium ensued.

* * *

Jasati Tarlo was not a happy man. And there was a very good reason for that. It wasn't his drink, for it was excellent. It also wasn't with his decorative arm ornament, which he fully intended to later enjoy to its fullest extent. Tarlo's distress came from some news he received a few hours ago, and as you might have imagined he was not pleased.

As Tarlo turned back to his drink, he got an unpleasant feeling. He had those sometimes. He suspected he might be a little bit Force sensitive. A person tapped into the universal energy that bound and connected together all life. Tarlo didn't know for sure and he didn't care much. All he cared about here was his ability to sometimes know when bad things were going to happen, which seemed to be now.

"Dear, is something the matter?"

Ah, my evening's entertainment. My mood's better already. 

"I am fine my darling. Merely puzzled on how a man like me could ever get a woman like you."

Answer, I have money.

The lady, whose name Tarlo neither remembered nor cared to, giggled.

By the Maker she is stupid and annoying. I can't wait until I finish my business here, I can finally put here to her proper use. You know this actually would have been a really good day. I have a damn good drink, I have some _dessert_, and the only real thing spoiling the mood somewhat is that Jabba put a death mark on my head. Just a few hours Jase, then you can ditch this dump. Maybe I'll go to Nar Shaddaa; Greck does owe me a favor. Good enough time as any to collect on that.

Something caught Tarlo's eye and he chuckled as he watched some short blond kid staggering from the bar.

Poor kid; must be his first time drinking. 

Suddenly a wave of pure fear crashed into Tarlo, which seemed to have brought to his mind all the horrifying ways he could die. How he was now merely prey. Tarlo with some effort threw off the feelings. He didn't get scared; he hired people to make other people scared. And Tarlo turned to what he instinctually knew to be the source of the fear.

The boy?

But the boy didn't look like he did before. His eyes were blood red and slitted. And this red energy spiraled around him. And a shape was forming within it. A shape which brought to Tarlo's mind all the stories he heard as a child of the monsters who stalk the night. Tarlo shivered as for a moment, super-imposed over the image of the boy was some many tailed… demon that looked like it came from his darkest nightmares.

Suddenly the boy… monster… thing moved… towards him.

The movement broke the unnatural silence, and the people started to scream, and ran panicked for the doors. Trampling or shoving aside anything in their way in the depths of their blind panic.

Crap! Crap! Crap!

Tarlo threw the girl aside and chugged down his drink. He really didn't have a problem doing so. Her kind was a credit a dozen, sometimes quite literally. The drink however was special. Tarlo when finished pulled out his blaster and aimed it towards the chaotic mass of people in front of his corner table.

Tarlo flinched as he heard blaster shots. But knew a second later they had to have come from his security team who had apparently gotten over their issues about firing into a crowd of people.

He gritted his teeth and sweat dripped down his brow as he did the only thing he could, he waited; waited as death tried, yet again, to take him down. But he wouldn't go down so easy. He was Jasati Tarlo, and for him death would never come.

As the waiting continued Tarlo started to get twitchy.

Where is he? Where the hell is he?!

Almost on cue, out of the quickly moving mass in front of him, burst the demon. And Tarlo aimed then fired.

* * *

Naruto darted through the crowd, swerving around, under or over the various people. Tarlo's security team which admirably reacted very quickly to his charge was firing at him. But Naruto was moving too quickly through the dense crowd for them to hit him. He saw ahead that Tarlo had thrown aside the girl and finished his drink.

Bastard.

A few seconds later Naruto burst from the crowd and Tarlo started to aim.

Naruto dashed forward and jerked the blaster upward as it fired. The movement broke a few of Tarlo's fingers, but he honestly never had time to worry about it. With his other hand Naruto grabbed Tarlo's throat and lifted him off his feet.

Now normally Naruto would have knocked him out in a relatively painless and easy way. But Naruto was not in a very good mood right now. He was tired, hungry… as the bar did not serve food, irritated at having to wait so long, and of course the final and most important reason why Naruto was pissed was that he was introduced to the lovely thing called a hangover, which was especially bad as all the alcohol in his system was burned out of it over the course of a few seconds.

Naruto lifted Tarlo over his head, and then slammed his back into the table below him. There was a crack. If you were wondering whether it was Tarlo, or the table which had cracked. The answer was both. Tarlo fell unconscious at once.

The crowd had dispersed, one way or another, and the security team had a clear shot of Naruto. So they fired.

Naruto's instincts screamed and he threw himself and his target over the table. In the process knocking it over, and ducking behind it for cover.

The blaster bolts thudded into the table. It would hold for a little while. Naruto quickly checked Tarlo's pulse. And feeling it was strong, Naruto breathed a sigh of relief.

Now to get the hell out of here.

Naruto tore off a long strip of his robes, noting to himself that he really should replace those soon, unless he wanted to expose a little more of himself then he really was comfortable with.

With the strip Naruto prepared to tie Tarlo to his back. But quickly realized a very unfortunately fact.

He was too tall.

Tarlo was too tall to fit on Naruto's back without majorly hindering Naruto's movements.

He panicked for a second then took Tarlo's legs and folded them to his head. Naruto had a distinct feeling that where he was going, Tarlo wouldn't need those.

It was a really good thing Tarlo was unconscious.

After he finished tying Tarlo to his back, Naruto took a peak around the table to get an idea where all the attackers were. The ninja quickly jerked his head back to safety as a blaster bolt nearly took it off.

Alright, this is where the fun begins.

Grabbing firmly the table by its legs, Naruto with a grunt lifted it in front of him and charged.

The table crashed into the first attacker, and knocked him off his feet. Naruto slammed the table down onto the downed enemy and using that force vaunted forward into a handstand and kicked the next member of Tarlo's security detail in the chin lifting the kicked man off the ground.

Quickly flipping to his feet. Naruto grabbed the airborne man's foot and slammed him down into the person charging him with a blade. He then with a spin to build momentum threw the man turned bludgeoning weapon into another attacker. And the whole time Naruto never stopped moving.

There were many things that the ninjas of Konohagakure have discovered during the invasion. One of which was that blaster bolts were really fast. Actually, they were ridiculously fast: far faster than most ninja could ever hope to move. However, while a blaster bolt was faster than a ninja, but the people firing them weren't. When moving at top speed, the stormtroopers could simply not react fast enough to accurately aim and fire at them. Utilizing this fact, the ninjas in battle stayed in a state of a constant movement. More than that they made sure their movements did not follow any type of pattern, so it was impossible for the troopers to guess where they were going to move next. Tarlo's secrutity team kept firing and kept missing, though a few shots came close. These people were just not used to fighting something as fast and agile as a ninja.

Naruto leaped forward and punched the next attacker in the head, knocking him to the ground unconscious he then continuing the previous movement kicked the blaster out of the hand of the person next to the recently downed attacker, grabbed the blaster out of mid air, and continuing his spin placed the barrel of his weapon in the man's neck and fired.

Naruto jumped and rebounded up to the second floor where he grabbed the man there and threw him over the side where he crashed into the cantina floor below. Then pushing off the wall Naruto slammed feet first into the second to last member of the security detail.

Naruto paused to catch his breath. The final member of the team, who was 10 meters away or so, was looking a bit nervous to put it lightly and quite understandably. Normally Naruto wouldn't pause in the middle of a fight but the final person only had a knife out and in the time it would take them to get a blaster out, Naruto could already be moving. Then Naruto felt movement below him as the person he was standing on was apparently not knocked out and was in the process of trying to stab Naruto's leg with a shiv. Naruto quickly stomped down, and that was the end of that.

Naruto called out, "I really don't want to have to kill you, so run away now and I won't".

"Kriff you."

The final attacker then flicked his wrists sending 2 small spheres into each one of his 4 large hands.

"Not so tough now are you Blondie."

With that final word the man activated all 8 of the grenades and threw them all at once at Naruto.

Naruto blanched, he knew the damage those things could do. Focusing his chakra he sent out a surge of wind, which when they came in contact with the grenades, blew them back.

The grenades all slammed back into the throwers body, lifting him up and smashing him into the metal door behind him.

Naruto stayed tense and alert, expecting another unpleasant surprise to jump out at him, but when nothing happened for a few minutes, Naruto relaxed and checked Tarlo's pulse again. Feeling it was still strong. Naruto started walking forward.

Alright, mission accomplished. But why does it feel like I'm forgetting something?

Naruto's ears then picked up the sound of 8 distinct beeping sounds. Sounds that were rapidly getting faster.

Oh.

Turning around quickly, Naruto sprinted for the far wall. He ripped Tarlo off his back and held him in front of him to protect Tarlo from the potential shrapnel. Naruto hoped to escape the explosion, but unfortunately that was not so. Naruto was too close at the beginning of his run to the grenades. He had walked too far during his after battle thoughts. And Naruto was hit by the edges of the detonation.

Feeling agonizing pain in his back and legs as the explosion and resulting shrapnel ripped them apart, the far wall approached rapidly. It was what he wanted a few seconds ago, though it was not quite in the manner in which Naruto wanted to reach it. The thing he wanted most was being given to him and it was going to kill him.

I really, **really,** hate irony.

Naruto in the instant before collision curled his body around Tarlo's to cushion the impact to the criminal.

Then Naruto collided, and moments later his limp body hit the floor.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Star Wars. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, and Star Wars belongs to George Lucas.

Thoughts are underlined

Author's Note: I am so sorry. College has been horrendously busy lately. I have had and still have a case of multiple midterm madness, which I am getting through painfully. Also I started my first Accounting course. To anyone who has taken Accounting you know what I have been going through. To everyone who hasn't, Accounting is really difficult and takes a lot of time to do. And after you spend 12 hours looking at numbers and financial statement, you have the creativity and motivation of a grub worm. In any case, enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 10:

It was not very pleasant being Naruto Uzumaki right now.

Not that it was ever that pleasant considering he held the animosity of an entire village while growing up, but now it was particularly unpleasant.

Naruto was in pain. And I'm not talking here about mental pain, though he had that too. I am talking about physical pain; a quality that ninjas also had to deal with a lot.

In addition to a lot of pain, Naruto heard when he returned to consciousness a strange ringing. He initially thought it was because of a concussion. But eventually decided that wasn't it. It just didn't match all his previous experiences with concussions. It just didn't sound right. So while Naruto had no doubt that he did have the previously mentioned head trauma, this ringing was something else. Then he figured it out.

It was sirens.

How exactly Naruto had confused sirens for ringing, he was not entirely sure, but he blamed his head injury, and well Kami, who seemed to enjoy throwing Naruto's life to shit.

I got to get out of here.

With that final thought Naruto tried to sit up.

Bad mistake.

At the movement, Naruto's body erupted in a white hot flash of agony. And Naruto thudded back into the floor, which caused pain all of its own.

Ow.

Naruto opened his eyes and attempted to survey the environment from his position.

The place was trashed. Wrecked. It looked like a bomb had gone off, which was appropriate. The room was also splattered with flesh and a whole cornucopia of technicolor goriness.

Wow, I guess not all people bleed red. Learn something new every day.

Naruto currently was lying on his side, his left arm partially entangled with one of Tarlo's legs. Naruto took a look at himself, trying to see how bad the damage was.

He noticed that most of his pain was coming from his back and legs, so he decided to check out his back first. Painfully lifting his right arm, Naruto reached behind him and started feeling around where it hurt the most. And encountered shrapnel, and big open bleeding wounds.

He then checked his legs or what was left of them. His left leg was still there though it looked and felt like something had been chewing on it for a while. His right leg however was not all there. A piece of shrapnel had partially severed his knee. So his lower leg was barely hanging in there by a few centimeters of skin. Naruto pulled out the piece of killer debris. It came out with a frankly extremely disturbing slurping sound. It was a large bone fragment. That looked suspiciously like it came from the guy that Naruto just blew up.

Why am I healing so slowly?

Which was true. While it was a miracle that Naruto survived at all, and he knew he was healing probably hundreds of times faster than a normal human. He could actually feel the flesh slowly knitting itself together. He would probably be completely healed within a few days, new right leg and all. However, the healing was very underpowered to what Naruto expected from the Kyuubi based on his previous experiences with the demon. While Naruto didn't think the Kyuubi was aware at all of Naruto's environment, Naruto knew for a fact that the fox knew the status at all times of his container, and dispensed his power to take care of injuries on the spot. Also since the fox had a flare for overkill, a consequence of its vast near infinite amount of power, Naruto's current healing situation was… odd.

Naruto then noticed a very faint unusual sensation he was feeling. It took a second but he tracked the sensation to his left arm. He looked at it, thinking he was ready for anything that might be happening. However, what Naruto saw still gave him a start.

There was a strange energy coming off of Tarlo's body. It was completely different than anything Naruto had ever seen before. But that was not the weird thing. The weird thing was that foreign energy was… reacting when it came in contact with the Kyuubi's power. Naruto couldn't tell what that reaction was, as he was a little freaked out at another thing he noticed. Whatever that reaction was, the Kyuubi's chakra interpreted it as a threat and was acting accordingly. Which explained the slowish healing. Apparently the demonic power ranked active threats as a higher priority than current injuries.

The way it dealt with this threat was to destroy the source of the disturbance. Tarlo's leg already looked like a charred piece of raw meat, and the burning was spreading.

Crap!

Bracing himself mentally, Naruto turned over so he was completely out of contact with Tarlo's body.

Naruto erupted in agony at the movement, as well as when his body hit the floor. But all things considered.

That wasn't that bad.

However, then the Kyuubi chakra, without the foreign energy anymore to deal with, had refocused all its attention on Naruto.

Naruto if he had coherent thought would have immediately taken his previous thought back. And if he had voluntary muscle control he would probably slap himself for jinxing things with said thought.

Pain beyond all imaginings erupted throughout Naruto's entire being.

Red power blasted from Naruto's body. The force of it actually lifting Naruto off the ground. It vaporized anything and everything it touched. The shrapnel disintegrated. But about a third of a meter away from his body the deadly aura stopped as Naruto fought to gain control of the power.

You see the power of the Kyuubi was extremely dangerous. And not just to Naruto's enemies, or anything that happened to get in his way, but also to Naruto himself.

Demonic chakra had a very negative effect on humans.

When the power was used, what Naruto felt was… power, unlimited power. He felt like a god. That he could do anything. His problems were dimmed and made so less of an issue, washed away by cleansing rage. Things were made so much less complicated. Kill your enemies; all other thoughts were not worth having. And Naruto felt an extreme desire to draw upon more power. So he does.

And more he drew upon, the more powerful he feels. The more his problems faded. The more his humanity faded as it was crushed under the weight of demonic instincts. The more his desire to draw upon more power grew. So he does.

And as the addiction in Naruto's mind firmly took root. His body burned and decayed around him. And his mind, body, and soul were destroyed by the demon, so all that was left was a monster.

Unfortunately, during a war you had to use every tool at your disposal to survive, so Naruto ended up using the Kyuubi's power a lot.

Thankfully Naruto had regained control on the energy and managed to reigned it in to about one tail's worth, which to Naruto was an amount of power that was manageable.

Now mostly healed, the rest of injuries would heal within a few minutes, Naruto crawled over to Tarlo's body to find out if his debt was going to decrease or Jabba was going to have him killed in an undoubtedly horrific fashion. He checked the man's pulse, and felt nothing.

Damn.

Naruto then noticed he had his fingers in the wrong spot to check the pulse. He moved his fingers about three centimeters and wai ted. He had just about lost hope when he felt a heartbeat. It was faint, but it was even. Naruto breathed a sigh of relief and stood up the rest of his injuries had healed when he was panicking.

Unfortunately Naruto's stolen clothes had finally given out on him, and were gone. Which is to be expected considering what they had been through. Even Naruto's faithful armor, which had survived until this point, was nothing but useless pieces of scrap now.

Naruto looked around for a second then quickly dressed in the clothes/armor of one of the thugs from earlier. Naruto had no problem with doing so. It was all a matter of utility. The dead had no use for clothes. They also had no use for weapons, but Naruto felt he didn't have enough time right now to relieve them of their useless armaments.

Arriving back at Tarlo's body, Naruto picked him up and slung him over his shoulder. Tarlo's blaster which had been entangled in Tarlo's clothes fell free and hit the floor with a clatter. Naruto knelt down to pick it up.

Blasters: one of the deadliest weapons that Naruto had ever seen. Just point it, pull the trigger, and bang, boom, dead. If a blaster bolt hits you, there was a really good chance you were not getting back up again. Though despite their incredible strength, most people didn't like like using them, though they were exceptions to that. There were people that liked them and were very good at using them. Such as Naruto's friend Tenten.

Though she was a special case, as she was just damn good at and liked using all weapons. Grief erupted in Naruto again before he beat it down .

Naruto frowned in distaste at the blaster but pocketed it anyway.

Naruto started to move towards the doors which, despite the explosion, still functioned.

However, Tatooine's Security Forces took that moment to bust in through said door. 4 men with uniforms and blasters raised.

Naruto panicked and a pulse of dense air pressure shot from his hand and shoved the uniformed men into the door frame, which both killed the men and broke the door's electronic controls thereby sealing the door shut.

Naruto heard the voices outside get louder and angrier. And he also heard them trying to break through the door.

Need another exit.

Naruto thought for a second, and then jumped to the second story landing. Seeing a window he rushed towards it, only to find that it was a window that was only able to be looked through. There was no way of opening it. So Naruto stepped back, grabbed a table and threw it at the windows as hard as he could. The windows broke, sending glass falling to the sandy ground. Naruto followed suit.

Landing in an alleyway, Naruto readied himself to keep moving. When he heard from behind him

"Freeze!"

* * *

Rey Anddres liked to think he was a good cop, but knew honestly that he really wasn't. It was the environment.

Tatooine was both a heaven and a hell for cops, and both for same reason: bribes.

Tatooine was technically ruled by the Empire, but in reality it was the Hutts that were the planet's taskmasters. The Hutts aren't evil, they merely all hold beliefs and conduct actions that, while moral for their culture, are considered extremely illegal to almost every other species in the entire galaxy. Besides Jabba, the unofficial ruler of the planet, criminals were the ones in control.

And where there was crimes being done, there were people who wanted to keep said criminal activity quiet, and where an even slightly crooked cop could make a quick and easy credit.

The problem for former cop of integrity Rey Anddres, it was just so easy. There was no chance at all of getting caught; there was so much other criminal activity going on that catching bribes was really low on the priority list.

So when Rey saw at a crime scene a short clocked figure holding another figure drop down into an alleyway in front of him and he yelled "Freeze!", he had some clear expectations of what was going to happen. The figure would turn around with a big sack of credits, he would say he didn't see anybody, and everybody would go home happy, except there was one problem with Rey's plan. When the figure turned around, it wasn't credits that the figure had for him.

It was only long experience with danger, and a very healthy paranoia which allowed Rey to avoid the quickly moving object that was sent at his head. As soon as his instincts screamed foul, he had thrown himself to the ground. Good thing as otherwise he would be likely be dead. An instant later when he looked up from the ground, the figure was gone.

Breathing heavily from the adrenaline rush, Rey stood up and turned to see what had almost ended him. He expected from the speed that it was some type of slug from a slug thrower or something. But all he saw was a ring sticking out of the wall. Puzzled, Rey walked over, grabbed the ring and tugged. It didn't budge. It took a few minutes but it finally came free of the wall. And he gasped.

For in Rey's hands rested a very odd looking, primitive, triangular knife.

* * *

Naruto stood in Jabba's fortress, ready to get paid. The ninja was sore all over, but pleased with his work. Then he remembered this job was only a reduction to the debt he owed Jabba, and his pride deflated. Still, Naruto thought with a mental groan, I gotta start somewhere.

Naruto slung Tarlo off his back and dumped him on the floor in front of Jabba.

Jabba barked out some quick command that the machine didn't translate and his Majordomo (that Twi-lek Naruto scared the shit out of earlier) came forward and checked Tarlo's pulse. After a second he looked back at Jabba and gave him a quick nod. Jabba then shouted out another command, still very frustratingly not translated by the machine, and two of the pig guards came and dragged Tarlo away. Though they did look slightly skittish when they walked near Naruto, but I guess that's understandable.

Jabba then spoke again, and the machine **finally** translated.

"The most esteemed and revered Jabba the Hutt appreciates your completion of your assignment and the 1000 credits will deducted from your debt."

Jabba then said something else then erupted into deep slightly creepy sounding laughter. The machine didn't translate… again.

The various other people in the room either because they found what their boss said to be funny, or they were just playing along because their boss said it, started laughing as well.

Naruto inwardly groaned; he had the agonizing feeling that that some joke was just made at his expense. And since he didn't intentionally do or say anything funny, it really pissed him off. And as he watched some annoying monkey-thing cackle from its perch on Jabba's dais, Naruto came to a conclusion:

Note to self, learn how to speak Hutt

* * *

As Naruto marched across the desert sands. His mind was split into thinking about two issues. First where and how the hell he would learn the Hutt language and the second being where he was going to sleep.

As Naruto thought, he noticed some large vehicle in the distance near the borders of Anchorhead. It was stationary and surrounded by really small cloaked figures with bright yellow eyes. Naruto had no idea what they were; he'd seen nothing like them in the data-books in the library. Or maybe he had, Naruto had honestly only skimmed most of the stuff on different species. Around the vehicle was all sorts of mechanical devices and doodads of sorts, as well as more of those machines, some of which similar to what Jabba had. With the cloaked figures there were a few green and scaly people looking at the devices.

They must be selling something. Not interested.

Naruto suddenly snapped his head towards the market and stopped running. His neck wrenched and his sudden stop caused sand to blast his entire body. But he didn't care; he had seen something that made all that unimportant.

Within the market, was one of those machines, this one shaped like a large sphere. It was also floating. That was not what caught his eyes though. On top of the sphere rested…

My hitai-ate.

For the first time in a long time Naruto felt joy, and immediately starting moving towards it so he grab it back. Not that he had a problem with it, but he rationalized it wasn't stealing because the thing belonged to him anyway.

However, a few seconds Naruto stopped. And rage filled his very being. He realized that his hitai-ate was not resting on top of the machine, it was welded. His most prized possession, one of the only things he had left from his home, the last remnant he had of a person he loved was being used as… a patch. Like a common piece of scrap metal.

The rage continued to grow until Naruto beat it down. He didn't want to have another incident.

I need a distraction.

With a quick hand seal a Kage Bunshin appeared in front of Naruto.

"You cause a distraction; make sure they don't notice me."

"Sure thing boss".

So Naruto waited. If he knew himself as well as he thought he did, his distraction would be loud. A few seconds later there a loud yell and a crash.

That's the signal. I hope I can keep them distracted. I mean the other me. Kage Bunshins are confusing.

Performing a quick henge to change the color of his clothes to match the color of sand, Naruto crept up to the floating sphere machine

Naruto reached out, grabbed the headband plate, and yanked. It didn't move. Naruto took in a deep breath and yanked again.

Suddenly the machine woke up and started screaming.

"Shh! Shh! Quiet. This will only take a second."

The machine quieted down.

"Thank you".

Reaching out Naruto grabbed the plate again and pulled. The machine started yelling again.

Naruto quickly stepped back and the machine quieted down.

I know I could get my hitai-ate off it if I put more power into it, but if I do that I might accidently destroy it. You know what, screw it, I am just going to grab the whole machine, and worry about getting the plate off it later.

Naruto grabbed the machine and started running with it, but the machine protested right away… loudly.

"Come on; don't tell me you want to stay here". Naruto wondered if there was some way he could either knock unconscious a machine, or destroy it without destroying his hitai-ate in the process.

"Beep beep".

Naruto paused in mid-thought. The beeps were said in a way that seemed very negative. The tones of the beeps just screamed hell no. He had an idea.

"Let's try this: one beep for yes, two for no. Do you understand me?"

"Beep".

Naruto smiled but he had to be sure.

"Do you not understand me?"

"Beep beep".

"Do you want to leave here?"

"Beep".

"Is there something making it so you can't leave?"

"Beep".

"Is it one of these things on your body?"

"Beep".

Great… its entire body is covered in things.

"Is it something that those short robed guys added onto you?"

"Beep".

"Were those robed guys the people that built you?"

"Beep beep".

Naruto didn't know what to do next so he just pointed at one of the devices on the machine.

"Is it that?"

"Beep beep".

Naruto pointed at another device.

"Is is that?"

"Beep beep".

"That?"

"Beep beep".

"That?"

"Beep beep".

Naruto was getting really annoyed.

"Is it that?"

"Beep beep".

"That?"

"Beep".

Ok, now to take a look at it.

It was some weird knob looking thing. Sticking out from the side of the machine's body like some kind of giant metal pimple.

Now to get it off.

Naruto then using his affinity towards wind focused and created a 10 centimeter blade at the tip of his pointer finger of concentrated air pressure, with an edge about the thickness of an extremely fine grain of sand. He then added a spark of fire to the blade, which ignited it.

The machine immediately tried to back away.

"Oh no no no. Come on my metallic friend. This is not going to hurt a bit. This thing will cut through your metal real quick, you won't even feel it. Hey, worst case scenario: even if I do mess up, you won't have any time to feel pain… that is if you can feel pain…"

Damn, my diplomacy sucks. I mean what the hell? I was great with Jabba, and now it is like my mouth isn't on speaking terms with my brain. Wait… mouth… speaking terms… heh… pun. Arg! Focus! Anyway, maybe it's because this time my life isn't in danger.

"Beep beep beep beep beep-beep"!

Naruto has no idea what the machine just said, but it was probably very rude.

"Look, it'll be fine. You want to stay here? Or take a small, very small, risk and get out of here? Come on, what's life without a little risk? No guts, no glory. Wait you don't have guts. Ok… um… no gears, no glory."

The machine went still and came closer to Naruto.

"You ready?"

"Beep".

So Naruto got started.

It took a few seconds longer than Naruto expected, but he had the metal device off.

"Now let's go."

He dropped the device on the ground, and he was ready to go.

Now when Naruto grabbed the machine and ran off, it didn't protest.

* * *

Naruto had moved a few hundred meters when he remembers the Kage Bunshin, since he no longer needed a distraction he dispelled the clone, and immediately chuckled when the memories of his clone's exploits came back.

The distraction the clone came up with was to run into the camp yelling at the top of his lungs, and push various large metal objects over. The real funny thing was that at the time that the clone dispelled, one of the little robed guys just shot some type of weapon at him. And the electric looking bolt had just barely come into contact with the clone, before Naruto had dispelled it. So from the point of view of the small robed guys, a weird, really strong, and fast creature came from the desert yelling at the top of its lungs. And when they finally managed to shoot it, it disappeared in a puff of smoke. And in an instant, ignoring the devastation it left behind, there was no evidence it was ever there. Naruto wouldn't be surprised if his clones' exploits entered their mythology as the actions of some kind of sand spirit.

Naruto gave one last chuckle and turned towards the machine.

Despite his initial troubles, he had a guaranteed job, and he just found one of his most prized possessions. That, in addition to a machine, which Naruto figured he would find some use for.

Things are looking up.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Star Wars. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, and Star Wars belongs to George Lucas.

Thoughts are underlined

Author's Note: I know it's becoming a pattern, but I was late updating the story because of finals. Both studying for them and taking them. In any case enjoy the chapter. Oh and special thanks to Blaster master 1942, my excellent beta reader.

Quick word of advice: Soda and milk are two great tastes that do not taste great together.

Chapter 11:

"Damn it!"

Naruto slammed the datapad onto his desk, though carefully as he didn't want to break the desk or the datapad… again.

After the first meeting with Jabba two months ago, Naruto searched desperately for a way to learn Huttese. For every time Jabba said something and the droid didn't translate, he just knew that they were mocking him. Paranoid… yes; true… probably. To support Naruto's paranoia, he finally learned what Jabba found so funny 2 months ago. Naruto was so proud of himself for demanding 1000 credits when Jabba offered 500, but it turns out the assignment was really worth 2000. Naruto had found out that the term 'droids' was the proper term for many different types of machines. Apparently 'droids' were any machine that had some degree of self-awareness, could move on their own, and in some way assisted sentient beings.

In any case, Naruto had eventually found an old smuggler about 2 weeks later who was retiring from the smuggling business. As she was retiring from the smuggling business and had no family, she was selling off all her old stuff. She actually had all sorts of interesting things to sell, but it was one item in particular that caught Naruto's attention… a datacard.

What was special about this datacard was that it taught the reader how to speak and understand a variety of languages… Huttese included.

Now while Naruto could have stolen it, he has been trying to cut down on the whole thieving thing. While he had no problem stealing something for survival, to do it for other reasons made him feel a little guilty.

So Naruto paid for it with the miniscule amount of pocket money he had, (most of his money kept going to Jabba to pay off the debt), and has been studying Huttese ever since. And fortunately he had to do it all by himself as whenever he ordered a Kage Bunshin to do it, the Kage Bunshin would_ accidentally _dispell themselves after 5 minutes due to frustration.

For Huttese was probably the most **frustrating** language ever. For it was a tonal language, required the use of subharmonics, (the Hutt throat could produce multiple sounds simultaneously, so they layered their speech with sub-harmonics to convey in their speech deeper meaning), that the human throat could not produce, and the words were designed to perfectly fit a Hutt throat, which he didn't have. Therefore his throat hurt, he sounded stupid, and he kept because of the tones saying things he didn't want to say by accident.

In addition to the datapad, a lot of things have happened to Naruto in the two months since he started working for Jabba.

One big thing that happened was that Tarlo did not go down quietly. When he woke up, he named names. That caused some chaos and fuss for a while.

Also Naruto brought the droid (he decided to name it Tomodachi, Tomo for short) to a droid technician so Naruto could 1. Get his Hitai-ate back and 2. Get Tomo fixed up as the Jawas (the name of the small figures in brown robes) had not taken good care of him. But when the technician saw Tomo, the guy completely freaked out.

Apparently the SR-1 Probe/Repair droid was possibly the rarest droid in the Galaxy. It was created 10 years ago during the Clone Wars in an attemot to create a droid that could learn, adapt, and think as well or better than a sentient being could. These droids were completely self-aware, and like most people, they refused to follow orders unless they got something out of it. That and the fact that they were capable of hacking through their own factory placed fail safes made people very nervous. They were already fighting battle droids during the war; they didn't want a droid rebellion on the home front. So the SR-1 project was scrapped, leaving about 50 SR-1 units in the galaxy. A number that quickly became much lower as a result of various accidents and unfortunate twists of fate. Tomo may have been the only one left of his kind in the entire galaxy. Naruto instantly felt a sense of kinship and refused to sell Tomo when he was asked.

Naruto just paid for the hitai-ate to be removed, and for Tomo to be fixed up, then he left. Naruto's heart swelled with relief and joy as he attached the engraved metal to a piece of blue cloth he had found and tied it around his head, just like he had it back home. Naruto felt good, knowing that, if nothing else, at least this little piece of precious metal had survived the destruction of his world.

Another exciting thing that happened was that Naruto finally managed to pay off his entire debt 2 days ago. Of course, it would have been paid off 3 weeks ago if Naruto had more self control with money.

3 weeks ago Naruto had discovered a casino and using his ninja skills, he cheated the casino out of a whole bunch of money. He came up with some great ways to do it too. One way he found was that if using chakra he ran a precise amount of electricity through a slot machine, the electricity temporarily interfered with the machine's internal workings so the machine always gave out the jackpot. The best thing was that the machine reverted back to normal about 30 seconds after Naruto stopped the current.

Another way Naruto found was that on games of roulette, a careful manipulation of air currents and pressure could actually allow him to control where the ball ended up stopping.

The final way that Naruto found was related to card games. Naruto was naturally skilled at these types of games because of his ability to see through the other players' bluffs and to bluff them really well. However, he increased his odds of winning by having Kage Bunshins hide within the shadows around the table. The Kage Bunshins watched the hands that were dealt to Naruto's opponents and they reported what they saw to Naruto. This system went well… maybe too well, as the owner of the casino got suspicious and banned him from the casino for life. And DNA snanners insured he stayed out.

So Naruto left the gambling business, but with a lot more credits than he had coming into it. He earned more than enough money pay off his entire original debt to Jabba 10 times over.

So Naruto was just walking along on his way to pay Jabba when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Then almost before he knew it he had a large shopping bag in his hand, and his wallet was empty.

What had caught Naruto's eye and what he lost his head over was:

Full body armor, excluding the head. A modified custom version of a traditional Mandalorian design, the armor was dull orange and black in color and made of the extremely rare and nigh indestructible metal that was Mandalorian Iron (the reason it was so expensive). The armor was extremely light, extremely flexible, very compact so it did not impede Naruto's movements at all, and, to Naruto's infinite delight, when the light hit the armor just right it looked like he was on fire. He also found out that for Mandalorians the color of the armor told you about the person wearing the armor. In this case the color black was worn by Mandalorians who desire to be an arbiter of Justice, which Naruto found incredibly appropriate for his situation. As for why orange, Naruto liked orange a lot. The armor also included two hidden, spring loaded 25 centimeter long forearm blades. The lower body part of the armor was colored an extremely dark orange almost black. Compact, light, nearly indestructible, and looking damn cool, what more can you ask for? Besides a helmet, which the Mandalorian creator of the armor decided not to make for whatever reason. This experience also made Naruto a bit interested in Mandalorians. For while he didn't know much about them, he knew they were a warrior people who made damn good armor, (if the armor he was wearing was any indication), and that was enough.

So while Naruto at the time was financially destitute again, he was an extremely well protected financially destitute person.

Another eventful thing was that Naruto had run a few experiments about that foreign energy he felt in the air on this planet. Whatever this unknown strange energy was, chakra and it did not get along. When they came in contact with each other they repelled each other and when they were forced to be in contact, they caused each other to dissolve. Also on Tatooine, because of this energy, the natural degradation rate of chakra after it left the body was much higher than it was back on Shuuyoujo. Kyuubi's power reacted to this energy much the same way, except the reactions were much more violent.

Unfortunately there was one other major change and event that happened to Naruto over the last 2 months. His anger was growing. Tatooine was technically an Imperial territory, with an Imperial Garrison there so Naruto occasionally saw Stormtroopers walking around. Every time he saw a Stormtrooper it got harder and harder to prevent himself from attacking the Imperial where they stood. Every time it got harder and harder for Naruto to control his thirst for justice. More and more often he woke up in the night screaming because of his horrible nightmares. He hated the Empire with every ounce of his being, but he had the self-control and intelligence to not act upon that hate… for now.

* * *

Currently Naruto was in his messy, small, one room apartment studying Huttese, or at least he was.

Normally at this point Naruto would go get an assignment from Jabba, but he was off planet right now taking care of some business that Naruto neither knew about nor wanted to know about. The person left in charge in Jabba's absence was a Chevin named Ephant Mon, and the problem here was that Ephant Mon hated him. It wasn't Naruto's fault that he thought the guy was a chair the first time he saw him. He was wearing a big cloak and he is kinda shaped like a chair. Ephant did not have to take it so personally. I mean it wasn't like Naruto was that heavy.

In any case Ephant was all ready to lynch Naruto until Jabba stopped him, for because as he then told Ephant, Naruto still owed him money. It made Naruto feel all warm and tingly inside. So he called Jabba 'a giant slug', it made him feel better.

Naruto personally thought it was hilarious that Jabba had bought his desperate scrambling during their first meeting. Now he could call Jabba 'a giant slug' and Jabba will actually be pleased about it. It was like a really great prank, and Naruto loved pranks.

He was fast, had incredible endurance, knew the village like the back of his hand, and his small size allowed to hide extremely well. Often his pranks were so bold and brash that he could run away when everyone else was too shocked to react. He did pranks for fun and out of boredom. How he mostly did it for attention. Most people when they were not forced to somehow think about or interact with Naruto tried to pretend he didn't exist. So Naruto started pulling pranks, for in his mind negative attention was better than no attention at all. Naruto's pranking days came to an end when he went on active duty as a ninja at age 12. But he still liked pranks, which was why he loved this aspect of the situation with Jabba.

"Tomo it's my birthday and it sucks. You're the only one around I give a damn about and who gives a damn about me, which is sad. Not that there is anything wrong with you! Because there's not! You're awesome, you would be an awesome summons, just imagine a giant you on the… battlefield."

I am such an idiot.

Summoning, in the way Naruto was thinking of, was summoning an animal from another dimension that more or less served your bidding. It was more or less, because they were completely sentient so they did not mindlessly follow orders. They could also be up to hundreds of meters tall. Naruto could summon toads. He gained the ability to summon toads from his personal sensei, Jiraiya who called himself the "Great Toad Sage".

You see, about 3 months into the invasion, some government official proposed that in addition to your normal personalized and group training of your squad leader, Genin should be given a second teacher that completely focused on them. That way the second teacher can give the Genin personalized training while the squad leader can focus on group training. This specialization of duties means the Genin are much stronger than they would have been. Well the Hokage suggested it to the Konohagakure Department of Statistical Research who crunched some numbers out and decided that the increase in field utility of the Genin was larger than the decrease in field utility of the Jounin who were now spending some of the time they normally would be in the field training a Genin.

So Sarutobi passed it into law, and to Naruto's complete surprise, Jiraiya asked for him by name. When Naruto asked him why he had done so, Naruto never received a straight answer.

Naruto had a realization: since Jiraiya could summon toads, if there was anybody who knew if there was any chance Jiraiya was alive, the toads would know! Naruto was not entirely sure, but he thinks there was a link between the toads and their summoners which told the toads the status of their summoners.

Biting his right thumb to draw blood Naruto ran through some seals.

Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Technique)

Slamming his right hand into the ground there was a big puff of smoke. When the smoke cleared it revealed…nothing.

"What!?"

Naruto did the technique again this time putting more chakra into it. Again, nothing.

Naruto did the technique again this time pouring so much into it that his hands glowed blue so bright that their forms were obscured. There was a big puff of smoke, and when it cleared…

"Yo."

There was a large toad about twice as tall as Naruto was standing in front of him dressed in a large coat, smoking a pipe, and with a sword at his hip.

"Gamakichi!"

"Naruto!"

It was physically a little awkward to hug a giant toad but Naruto managed.

"It's great seeing you Naruto."

Tomo with its advanced sensors and sentient-like intelligence had recognized it was a very emotional time for Naruto so had left to patrol the outside of Naruto's apartment.

"Hey Gamakicki, I am just wondering why did I just summon you. Not that it is not great to see you but with the amount of chakra I put into the technique why didn't I summon Gamamusha or Gamasenshi?

"Naruto, how much do know of how summoning works?"

"Um… First you draw a little blood…"

"No no no, not how to do it, but the actual mechanics of how it works".

"In that case, nothing."

"All summoned animals exist in another dimension that lies close to this one. There is a barrier between the dimensions. When you perform the jutsu, you are opening a hole in that barrier, reaching through and based on how much chakra you use you bring one of us through. Then your blood temporally binds us to this dimension and we pull together the chakra in the environment together in order to form for ourselves a corporal body. Got it?"

"Yeah".

"The problem here is that there is no chakra in the environment. And the energy that is in the environment here is very uncooperative to our attempted manipulations and in any case doesn't seem to have the right properties for our needs."

"Then how are you here right now?"

"Because you looped it. You poured so much chakra into the technique, that it not only brought me through to this dimension but there was enough chakra left over for me to create a corporal body out of it. What this means for you is that it will take a lot more chakra to summon a given member of my family than it did back home."

"So what is the energy in the environment here?"

"No idea, but the Elders have a theory. They say this energy, this, for a lack of better word, Force is the energy that existed on Shuuyoujo before Chakra."

"Really?"

"According to them, the original residents of Shuuyoujo came from the stars possessing great technology".

"Yes, and Kisai's Folly caused the Great Beasts to lay waste to all that was of these beings of the heavens and forced them to flee below the ground. And so was the end of the Golden Age. I know the stories Gamakicki."

"Yes, but what the stories don't say it that these people had access to this… Force. Now assuming this is right, and the Elders are not full of it, this Force would have disappeared around the first appearance of Chakra. Chakra appeared when the demons came as their power mutated your bodies and thus caused Chakra to develop. If these people had access to this Force until then, then when the Demonic energies mutated them, they would have come in contact with this Force, and likely mutated it as well. So that means Chakra is some likely some bizarre mutation of the mixture of Demonic Energy and this Force."

"Wow… but I'm getting off topic. I summoned you because I have to ask you a question. Is Jiraiya alive?"

"Maybe".

"Maybe? I need a clearer answer than that."

"Well it is the best answer I can give you. All Summons have a bond with their summoners that tell us whether you're alive and stuff like that. If the bond remains unbroken then we know the summoner is alive. If the bond is broken the summoner is most likely dead but could be alive. The bond breaks the instant before death, if between the bond breaking and death the summoner somehow recovers then they live, though they no longer will be able to summon anything from my home dimension until they re-sign the Blood Contract. Jiraiya is a unique case. His bond broke 2 months ago, but then reattached itself 5 weeks ago. We don't how he did it, as we know he didn't sign the Blood Contract as the contract is being carefully watched over by Gama. Then his bond broke again 2 weeks ago. Reattached itself again about 4 days ago, then broke again about an hour after that. So while the facts say he is likely dead, I am going to go out on a limb here and say that he is still alive. Jiraiya's a tough old bastard, there is no way he's going to die so easy."

"Great. If the bond reattaches again, and he summons you, can you tell him that his apprentice is on Tatooine?"

"Sure, and I'll pass the message throughout the entire family so if Jiraiya summons any of the Gama clan he'll get the message. If there is not anything else, I should go pass on the message. The pool of excess chakra I'm drawing upon to stay in this dimension is about empty anyway. Though before I go, can I have a snack?"

"But you don't have to eat."

"So? I can still eat if I want to."

"Um… ok."

Looking around for a second, Naruto found a piece of Bantha Jerky and threw it to Gamakicki, who caught it in his mouth.

"Thanks. See ya Naruto". Following this last statement, Gamakicki disappeared in a puff of smoke.

And Naruto felt hope, something he had not felt for a very long time. Maybe one day he wouldn't be alone anymore. Maybe they weren't all dead. Maybe one day he could be happy again.

This was a pretty good birthday after all.


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Star Wars. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, and Star Wars belongs to George Lucas.

Thoughts are underlined

Author's note: Sorry for the long wait. I blame school, which has been very busy. Please check out the new forum I created.

Chapter 12:

I guess Gamakicki was wrong. It has been 2 years and nothing. I guess I have got to accept the fact that he might be… dead. 

Naruto frowned.

Hey I survived just fine being alone while growing up. I can survive just fine being alone now. And I got friends. Though none of them truly know the real me, as them knowing the real me would too dangerous. 

Which was very true. The things Naruto wanted to do to Palpatine would make a deranged mass murderer shudder in revulsion. It would also if known cause him to get a death mark placed on his head.

The thing was Naruto was very paranoid. Partially because of his upbringing, and partially because of his current circumstances, Naruto was operating under the idea that if he got close to anyone, they would betray him to the Empire. What this meant was that while Naruto was friends/friendly acquaintances with a lot of people, (Naruto was a very social person), none of them could really be considered a close friend.

Naruto arrived at his destination and forced himself to smile.

Hey, time to have some fun. Been working hard, so it's time to relax.

Pushing open the door, Naruto walked into Chalmun's Cantina.

* * *

"Yo, Naruto's in the house".

"Hey Naruto".

"What's going on kid?"

"Hi Uzumaki".

Naruto's life on Tatooine has changed a lot over the last 2 years. Naruto has risen to a position of great power within Jabba's court. Naruto was Jabba's go-to Bounty Hunter/Mercenary. Of course, part of that was because Naruto almost always available right away for a job. But besides that Naruto has gained a reputation on Tatooine as a person who gets the job done. Mostly various jobs dealing somehow with the criminal element on Tatooine, but Naruto has done a few jobs offworld. He bought some piece of crap Junker 18 months ago. It wasn't a very good ship but Naruto wanted to do the one thing he wanted to do ever since he landed on Tatooine and that was to get off it. The ship worked for about a month before it broke down beyond repair, and Naruto decided to save up his money for a better one. So now when he needed to go offworld he caught a lift with one of Jabba's many cronies. He found and bought a good ship about a month ago. It currently was going through the various bureaucracy and paperwork which seemed to infest everything regardless of what world you were on. Naruto knew he could have sped up the process with some credits, but honestly Tatooine was growing on him a little bit.

Naruto paid for someone to hack his datapad into the Imperial Enforcement DataCore, as well as to forge all the appropriate bounty hunting licenses, and to artificially create for Naruto a past in the Imperial records. Extraordinarily expensive, but worth it.

He also spent some credits giving Tomo a few extra toys. Such as a stealth generator so he could do its probe duties a lot better and easier than before, and he had a video uplink hooked up to Naruto's datapad so he could see anything that that the droid saw on his datapad. As well as a microphone so Naruto could remotely give commands (which Tomo often ignored). He also gave Tomo a blaster, just in case things go horribly wrong. Usually Tomo floated around behind Naruto when he went out, but currently Tomo was at Naruto's place. Naruto's power generator has been malfunctioning recently, so Tomo was fixing it.

Naruto also found out that his armor was made of a material that was near indestructible and extraordinarily rare. In hindsight, the price he got it for was so cheap compared to its true value, the seller must not have known what he had. Unfortunately Naruto had a growth spurt and outgrew the armor. So Naruto had the armor melted down to raw ore, mixed with some high quality durasteel, and forged into new set of armor. Basically it was exactly the same as his old set of armor, just bigger, not quite as tough, and a little heavier. Though Naruto did like how the heavier armor gave his blows more weight. Also, it turns out Durasteel was more chakra conductive than Mandalorian Iron, which meant Naruto's chakra techniques were just a little easier to perform. Naruto added some storage seals to the wrists of the armor, this way he could store and carry whatever and however much he wanted with him at all times. Though he stored some of his stuff in pouches at his waist, just in case he was running low on Chakra and couldn't afford the energy to activate the storage seal. Also Naruto wore a bodysuit under the armor. It was designed to disperse kinetic energy, which made physical blows less effective on him.

In any case currently Naruto was casually walking through the cantina, quickly and easily slipping into his social persona.

Chatting and saying hello to various people while walking by, Naruto eventually came to the bar.

"Yo Wuher, my man."

Wuher who was cleaning classes by the bar stopped and just looked up at Naruto. After a few seconds he said gruffly,

"Naruto".

"I'll have my usual".

Wuher sighed.

"Why do come here if you don't drink alcohol?"

"What can I say? I had a bad experience with alcohol, but I like the atmosphere here."

"Yeah, whatever. As long as you keep paying me."

Wuher quickly mixed up the juice drink; Naruto paid the man and with his juice blend set out to enjoy his much needed break from work. He quickly drained the drink and put the glass back on the counter.

Walking up to a table he said energetically,

"Hey Labria, how are you doing my devilish friend?"

"Not in the mood right now Uzumaki."

"Bye".

Naruto quickly disappeared before Labria could say anything else. Another thing Naruto has learned is to never piss off a male Devaronian. They had bad tempers with short fuses. They also held grudges for a very long time.

* * *

Weaving though the crowds, Naruto spotted a familiar face.

"Hey Tyren."

"Hi Naruto."

"Where's your hat?"

"Hey that reminds me".

Reaching into a bag he had on the chair next to him at the bar, Tyren pulled out a hat and gave it Naruto.

"Happy birthday."

"You remembered? Thanks man".

Naruto put on the hat and chatted a little with Tyren as they navigated through the crowd.

Tyren was the closest thing to a best friend that Naruto has on Tatooine, and Tyren knew absolutely nothing about him, which was sort of sad. But Naruto's paranoia required no less.

They eventually came to a table.

"Hey Naruto, hi Tyren."

"Hey Arden, hey Wilken. Can we join your Sabacc game".

"Well I was thinking I had too much money in my pocket. _Always_ _glad_ you're here to help Naruto".

"I don't always win Arden".

"Say that to all my money that is in your bank account".

"Enough children!"

"Sorry Dad"

"Sorry Wilken"

"Now Arden we don't play to earn money, we play for fun. Money is merely something to give the game a little competitive weight. As for you two we would be delighted if you join us."

Wilken and Arden Cynerus both were intelligent, powerful and rich. They came to Tatooine every month or so to visit the grave site of Arden's mom. And after they paid their respects, they always came to Chalmun's Cantina to play Sabacc. Naruto met them about a year ago, and while he bickered a lot with Arden, Naruto got along with both of them pretty well.

Tyren coughed. "Enough bantering, let's get to the game."

"Alright. We just started a game, so it would be easy to restart it."

"Dad I was winning."

"Another great reason to restart. So what rules you want to play Naruto?"

"How about Corellian?"

"Alright. Everyone cool with that?"

"Yeah."

"Whatever."

Naruto's comlink then started beeping.

Naruto answered his comlink, and a hologram of a Twi-lek appeared. He immediately started talking in Huttese.

After a few minutes, Naruto answered back in Huttese and ended the comlink call.

"Sorry got to go guys. I have an assignment from Jabba."

Tyren groaned.

"Couldn't you play one game first?"

"Believe me, I wish I could; but Jabba provides most of my business and I can't exactly afford to piss him off." There was a series of grumbles from everyone else at the table.

"Don't be like that. How about this, you all get one drink on my tab. And I mean **one**. That is not code for five. I am looking at you, Tyren".

"That hurts, it really does. Have you so little faith in my integrity?"

"Yes".

"… Alright, point taken. I promise I'll not get more than one drink on your tab."

Naruto looked at Wilken, who sighed.

"I'll watch him for you."

"You're so sure I am going to try to cheat you…?"

"Yes."

"Oh just go."

"Alright, see you guys".

"Bye".

"Later".

"See you".

* * *

Desperation and fear can cause many things in a man. Through adrenaline it can make someone stronger and faster. Better in a fight, or more appropriately in this case to run away in abject terror. Not that it will help in this case at all.

The man fled down the back alleys of Mos Eisely. His large size, grey skin, and red eyes would have made him a very intimidating figure if he wasn't currently sweating like a pig.

Without any warning, he was struck in the back, which knocked him to the ground. The Duros immediately got to his feet and withdrew his blaster. Only to be knocked down again.

Spotting a figure out the corner of his eye, he raised his blaster and fired.

Or he would have if a force didn't slam his hand back into the ground and break it. That force being that figure's foot. The foot was connected to a powerful looking short man with blonde hair wearing a dirty brown cap.

"Sorry Raraza, you're not going anywhere. Jabba knows you've been working behind his back with his enemies. And he wants me to bring you to him. Believe me, considering the stuff you've done, I can't wait to see you get what you deserve. Any last requests?"

"Um… Let me go."

"Ok".

"Really?"

* * *

"This is not what I meant!"

The voice came from the stomach of an enormous toad.

"What the problem? I let you go didn't I? I am not preventing you from escaping; Gamadarakeru would be the one doing that."

"But it's cold, it's wet, and it's dark".

Gamadarakeru then slammed one of his hands into his stomach.

"Hey shut up in there."

"Think about it this way Raraza: as bad as this is, Jabba will do far worse. You should try to enjoy your current circumstances while you can. So sit there, relax, and reflect on the delicious irony that you're named after a bird that eats toads, and right now you're in the stomach of one."

* * *

Naruto was in a good mood, and why not? He had more credits in his bank account, he got a good laugh from the look on Jabba's holographic face when Gamadarakeru barfed Raraza up in front of him when Naruto delivered Raraza to one of Jabba's fronts (Jabba had fronts and offices in all of Tatooines' cities), Naruto's ship just cleared regulations so he could leave the planet as soon as he took care of all his current affairs on Tatooine, and he just haggled a really good deal at the Mos Eisley Market for Bantha Meat, which he promptly stored in a seal.

"Hello Naruto".

"Hi Ganron".

Ganron Selayen was a war veteran. He owned the shop whose window he used as a mirror. Long story short the reason he was stuck on Tatooine had to do with some war called the Clone Wars, which apparently was some big Civil War where a bunch of planets called the Confederacy of Independent Systems tried to secede from the Republic (the galaxies' previous form of unified government). Commander Ganron Selayen had loyally served and fought for the Republic for 50 years by that point. He was a textbook example of military loyalty, efficiency, and skill that many aspired to. Then he defected to the other side. He told Naruto that he realized that he agreed with the Separatist cause.

Unfortunately for Ganron, CIS the lost the war. And Ganron found himself guilty of High Treason, suddenly bereft of any type of protection from a military tribunal. Knowing that the courts would have him executed, he went to ground on Tatooine where he has stayed since.

Both Naruto and Ganron knew that they was a bounty on Ganron's head that Naruto could collect, but Naruto decided that he wasn't going to collect it.

Naruto liked Ganron. They weren't friends exactly, but they in many ways understood each other. They were both soldiers that experienced war and that gave them a bond.

Whenever they chatted, Ganron would tell Naruto about his various military exploits, and Naruto learned a lot from them, tactics and strategy mostly. Also Naruto learned a little history. Given it was all military history, but it was still very valuable.

Unfortunately at the moment Ganron did not have time to chat, but the encounter still put Naruto in a better mood. But as they say all good things must come to an end. Naruto saw an Imperial.

The Stormtrooper was taking a shortcut through a wide alley way. Hatred exploded in Naruto and his hands were clenched so hard that under his armor they started to bleed. Good mood gone, Naruto headed towards the alley way. He casually pulled a device from one of his armor's storage seals and when he got close enough stuck it on the wall at the beginning of the alley way. Once stuck on the wall the device activated with a low hum.

* * *

The Stormtrooper's communications went dead.

Oh come on. This is the fourth communication equipment failure this month. But I keep such good care of my equipment, why would this happen to me? I guess I'll complain about it tomorrow. Right now I just want to get home and eat my wife's meatloaf, which unfortunately would be getting cold by now. Better hurry up. 

Dace Panib picked up his pace. He wanted to get home. He especially wanted to show Fiolla an award he got today. He was extremely proud of the fact that he was one of the very few natural born Stormtroopers in the Corp. Most of the Corp. were still clones, but Dace was one of the first natural born people to volunteer for the job. While he did not care much for Palpatine, Dace loved the Empire. He was not entirely sure why he was posted on Tatooine, but he was sure there was a good reason. Feeling patriotic pride, Dace took a moment to adjust his standard issue all-white Stormtrooper armor.

Hearing a noise behind him, Dace turned around. However, he didn't see anything, so he turned back to his original position. Only to start in surprise as there was suddenly an intimidating looking figure in front of him. After a few seconds Dace relaxed.

It's just a kid.

Which was true. It was a very tough and powerful looking kid, but still a kid. Dressed in a dark orange armor, Dace figured the boy was playing dress up, not realizing that the armor fit the kid far too well to not be made for him.

The kid was about 16 years old, maybe 1.68 meters tall. Blond, blue eyed, with weird whisker like scars on his cheeks. He was wearing besides the armor, some pouches, a metal headband, and a dirty brown cap. Dace's mind grew uneasy as unconsciously it sensed something dangerous about him. Even though the kid was smiling, something in the kid's eyes seemed a little off.

Maybe the kid's lost.

However, before he could ask the kid if he was indeed lost. The kid spoke still with a big smile.

"Are you proud of the horrible things that the Empire has done, the murdering of innocent children, the architect of trillions of atrocities?"

"Kid you could get into a lot of trouble if you talk like that. So please don't."

"So I can't express myself? You going to prevent my freedom of speech? What else can't you expect from a dog of the bloated tyrannical abomination that is the Empire?"

That sense of unease that Dace felt increased and he instinctually started to reach for his blaster.

"Oh you're going to silence me? Is this how the Empire solves all its problems, just shoot it and make it go away? It says a lot about a person that when they are faced with verbal criticism the first thing they do is reach for their gun."

"Kid, I am going to need you to come with me."

"Oh no no no, I can't do that. I'm on a mission."

"What type of mission?"

"You see there's a dangerous rabid animal that is loose around here. Now I feel it is my duty as an upstanding person to put this dangerous beast down. Maybe you've seen it. It is dressed in white and has a very hard shell."

Realizing what animal the boy was hunting, Dace reached for his blaster.

Too late.

Moving far too fast to be natural the boy darted forward and slammed his foot into Dace's chest knocking him to the ground.

To Dace's credit, he got up and had his blaster ready to fire in a split second. Only problem was that the boy was no longer there. Or at least did not appear to be.

Filled with adrenaline, Dace scanned the surrounding area, this blaster ready to fire. However, in the alley way there were a lot of shadows so he didn't see much.

"Who are you? Why are you doing this?"

The boy's voice answered though it was projected so Dace could tell where it was coming from.

"My name is not important, just think of me as an arbiter of justice. As for why, you mean you don't know? Well I hadn't planned on it, but I suppose I could teach you. And the best to learn is through example. Ok, class is in session, better pay attention".

Dace started turning to try to get a glimpse of Naruto.

"Now let's begin with a quiz. Answer honestly now. How does it feel to be taunted by an enemy you don't know, with abilities you have never seen before? Well…"

"I don't know what type of game you're playing, but nerve-racking… I guess".

"I suppose you could say that. Next question. How does it feel to have your defenses stripped away?"

There was a blur of movement and there was a knife embedded in a groove in Dace's armor. Around the knife's handle there was a piece of paper, a smoking piece of paper. Suddenly the paper exploded.

Dace's armor was blasted off him and he crashed to the ground again.

Realizing the situation he was in, he swallowed his pride and yelled.

"Somebody help!"

"You can go ahead and scream all you'd like. Nobody is going to help you. That's the wonderful thing about Tatooine, Mos Eisley in particular; people have a strong sense of self-preservation. Nobody has the guts help each other out unless they have to because they know if they do those guts will be painting the ground. In any case I'm not sure anyone can hear you, as there's a sound bubble around this alley way that prevents sounds from getting out. So don't fret, this will remain a private lesson. And I just realized but I can't have blasters in my classroom, I'll have to take that."

Suddenly there was a blur of motion in front of Dace and he felt his blaster being ripped from his hands.

"Now where were we? Ah yes, I remember. Next question, how does it feel to be completely helpless in the dark as you're tortured?"

* * *

Naruto slammed his foot into the Stormtrooper's right knee snapping the joint, and grabbing the broken leg used that as a lever and slammed the man into the wall. Then kneeing the Trooper in the stomach, Naruto grabbed the man's left arm and wrenched it, causing the whole thing to let off a series of snaps and cracks. He screamed and Naruto took pleasure from the sound.

Naruto then picked him up and threw him against the opposite wall. The man's lip caught a nail that was embedded in the wall, and was suspended for a few moments before the lip ripped and he fell to the ground. When the Trooper was the ground, Naruto took the opportunity to stomp on and break his other knee.

Picking up the Trooper by the throat, he asked,

"How does it feel knowing you are going to die?"

The man in response slammed his right hand into Naruto's face, causing them both to crash to the ground. Dace looked at Naruto's collapsed body and grinned until the body disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"How does it feel thinking you have won, but realizing you didn't? Now answer this. How does it feel seeing your whole world burn?"

Dace frantically started crawling towards the exit to the alley only to be cut off by a wall of flames. And when he turned around, behind him was cut off too. And from the flames walked Naruto. Through chakra shielding both him and his clothes were completely untouched by the fire. Picking up Dace by the back of his head he smashed the man's head into a wall then threw him through one of the flames.

Mildly burned, Dace's skidded across the ground, the friction peeling some of the flesh from his bones. However, he stopped sliding close to the exit and immediately tried to crawl to it.

Naruto watched Dace for a few seconds. The smile that has perpetually been on his face this entire time for the briefest moment became something else, something very ugly, before Naruto hid it away.

Then with a blur of motion Naruto was in front of Dace, and backhanded him, the force of which lifted the man off the ground and slammed him into a wall.

Then darting his right hand out, Naruto pinned the Trooper's neck to the wall.

"How does it feel to think you have escaped only to realize that you were sadly mistaken? So any last words monster?"

"I'm not the monster here."

"Oh, but you **are** a monster. Now if you're saying I am as well. Well I don't think so. I am just doing my civic duty after all, my duty to cleanse this beautiful galaxy of all its Imperial filth. Your kind is a disease on the galaxy, and if wanting to cure it makes me a monster then I guess I am one."

Dace spat at Naruto. While aimed at his eyes, because of Dace's torn lips, the spit hit Naruto's chin. Naruto casually wiped it off.

"Excellent statement, allow me to retort."

And Dace started to scream. His sanity began to disintegrate as the claws of madness ripped apart his mind. His heart went crazy as Naruto projected all his hate, all his loathing directly into Dace's mind. Naruto stopped after a second.

He didn't want the trooper to be too insane to fully experience what was going to happen to him next.

Activating his right hand's wrist blade, Naruto gutted him then stepped back. Imbuing his saliva with the Kyuubi's power, he spat, setting Dace's body aflame. And he proceeded to just watch Dace scream and burn.

As said before Naruto with only a few exceptions did not kill any more then he needed to.

This was one of those exceptions.

"Class Dismissed"

* * *

Naruto with practiced ease casually deactivated his houses security seals. The house was a gift from an archeologist whose life he saved a while back.

Naruto was in a very bad mood, which was not unusual for him. Whoever said that time heals all wounds was full of crap. His rage, his hatred, his sorrow has not abated over the years. It had instead grown stronger. It was like a disease, a cancer that infested his entire being. It was an obsession. It was the first thing he thought about when he woke up, and the last thing he thought about when he went to sleep. He was not even free during the night, for then was when he had the nightmares. His hatred was always there, always present. His hatred compelled him to kill Imperials, but it never really satisfied him. It would help briefly, but it was always ended up increasing his hate, causing him to kill more of them, and thereby restarting the cycle.

Naruto brought his forearm to his mouth and activated a transmitter.

"Hey Tomo, you there?"

Not hearing anything, Naruto figured Tomo was busy working or recharging.

Stripping off his torso armor and pouches, he tossed them to the floor. Working out a kink in his back that has formed when he was… disposing… of the Imperial, Naruto headed for the refrigerator. Naruto took out a carton of Blue Milk and proceeded to chug it down.

He then heard a noise behind him.

He initially thought it was Tomo, but dismissed the thought immediately. The noises that Tomo made while moving were different than the one he just heard. Assuming it was an enemy, Naruto prepared to use the only weapon he had available, the half full milk carton. However, before he could do so.

"This is a nice place you got here Naruto."

I know that voice.

Turning around, Naruto gave a gasp and the carton of milk hit the ground.

For sitting on Naruto's couch eating a sandwich was Jiraiya.

"Hey Naruto. Oh by the way you're out of bread."

"Hi Ero-sennin."

"I don't see you for over two years and the first thing you do is call me Ero-sennin?"

"Yeah".

"I guess I wouldn't have it any other way."

Jiraiya stood up.

Who initiated what happened next was yet to be determined, but I suspect it was done at the same time as Naruto and Jiraiya met in a big hug. And Naruto cried in joy for he was not alone anymore.

For a moment the rage disappeared. And for the first time in so long, Naruto felt genuine happiness.

Too bad that happiness wouldn't last long.


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Star Wars. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, and Star Wars belongs to George Lucas.

Chapter 13:

It was a beautiful moment. A moment of peace and happiness in a life that was frankly filled with anything but that. It was really nice…

"You can get off me now kid."

… when it lasted.

"It is really nice to see you but try to have a little composure. I just dry cleaned my jacket and you're getting your tears all over it."

"Sorry"

Naruto stepped back.

"No problem… oh I am just so glad you are alright."

Jiraiya quickly swept in Naruto up another hug only to let him go right afterwards.

Clearing his throat he said, "Sorry about that. Lost my cool for a second."

"You're crying".

"I am not!"

"Yes you are."

"I have allergies".

"Allergies to what?"

"… emotional reunions."

Naruto smiled but suddenly a thought occurred to him.

"Where's Tomo?"

"What's a Tomo?"

"A floating spherical droid."

"Oh… that was your droid… my bad."

"What did you do?"

"When I was sneaking in to surprise you, I noticed it skulking around your power generator outside, so I thought it was an enemy."

"What did you do?!"

Jiraiya whipped out a storage seal and activated it. Out of the seal came a lifeless Tomo. The word being slightly odd to refer to a droid by, but Tomo was unique that way.

"I hit him with an ion pistol. His system's probably wiped. I was going to sell him for salvage later. I am really sorry. I'll buy you a new droid. I'll find you an orange one… that will cook you ramen… and … uh…"

Naruto was annoyed and was about to yell until he realized that on the ground a tiny blaster was extending out of Tomo's body, which then fired into Jiraiya's knee.

"Son of a…!"

Tomo then floated up to shoulder height when it gave Jiraiya the droid version of a smirk and a snort, then floated off.

"Ow."

"No offense Ero-sennin, but you kind of deserved that."

"Whatever".

"How you get in anyway?"

"Think about it. I am a legendary Sannin, you're a Genin. I have awe inspiring skills, and you… don't. Also I taught you the seals you used to protect your house".

"Oh."

"As long as we talking about seals, I have a question."

Jiraiya reached down and picked up Naruto's computer, which was on the table.

"In the file labeled _Nightmare Project _you used…"

"Wait, why were you looking in my computer?"

"I needed something to do while I was eating my sandwich."

"Don't you care about my privacy at all?"

"No, not really. I'm a spy Naruto. If I cared about people's privacy, I wouldn't be that good at my job now would I?"

"My computer was password protected".

"I sliced it."

"You sliced…"

"Anyway, you used a Supairaru Seal, but I don't recall teaching you how to draw those."

"A what seal?"

"A Supairaru Seal".

"I have no idea what that is".

"The seal that looks like a spiral in a box, what do you call it?"

"I call it the Spiral in a Box Seal."

"… anyway… how did you learn it?"

"Trial and error".

"Trial and error?"

"Yeah… let's just say it is a really good thing that I heal fast."

"Well that would explain why it is drawn wrong".

"… wrong?"

"Yes, your control line is supposed to be at a 44.9 degree angle, you drew it at a 45 degree angle."

".1 degrees, who cares?"

"You do, when the thing blows up in your face. You see Naruto, in seals there is no such thing as a small mistake. It is either exactly right, or catastrophically wrong."

"I didn't know that".

"Of course you don't. Because of it being a time of war, a lot of aspects of your training were accelerated far more than I would have liked. Anything involving theoretical lectures, theory, or things without immediate combat applications were removed from your education. So you don't know really that much about how seals work, you just know how to make the seals I showed you, and the few you learned yourself through trial and error. If I had the time to train you properly, I would have taken things a lot slower, and I would have explained how seals worked, improved your foundational skills, and stuff like that, which have no direct combat application but are still extremely useful."

"Why didn't any of the toads warn me you were coming?"

"I wanted to surprise you, so I asked them not to tell you."

"Speaking of which, so what has been happening with you? The toads say your Summoner's bond broke and reestablished itself multiple times."

"I live a dangerous life Naruto. The original bond broke when I crash landed on Nar Shaddaa. I figured out how to recreate and sign the contract, but then I pissed off a man who tried and nearly succeeded in killing me…. long story. Things basically went along that kind of vein for a while."

"What do you do?"

"I'm an information broker. And despite only being in business and building a spy network in the galaxy for 2 years, I am a very successful one. I may not be even close to the level of the Bothan Spynet, but I am also a lot cheaper than they are. And my service does not come with an attitude."

"I'm a bounty hunter".

"Didn't you just hear me say I'm an information broker? I know a lot about you."

"How?"

"Jabba has been keeping tabs on you. Once I learned from the locals that you worked for him, I sliced into Jabba's computer system. Unfortunately his firewall is damn good, so I was only able to get bits and pieces, but they added nicely to the information I gathered about you from around the various towns."

"Jabba has been keeping tabs on me?"

"Well you did break into his fortress, you don't exist officially or unofficially in anybody's records, you demonstrate abilities that are similar to but distinctly different from anything he has ever seen before, and despite those unusual abilities nobody in his organization has any knowledge whatsoever of you or anybody like you. You're a wild card. You're new, you're different, you're unpredictable, so you're inherently dangerous to him because he cannot predict and thereby manipulate what you do next. I think that is a good reason to keep tabs."

"Ok… so I'm wondering what the plan was."

"For what?"

"The plan to destroy the Empire of course. How will we crush them?"

"Not sure yet. We are two people against forces of trillions. We'll need more numbers and resources to do any sort of major damage. However, bringing any outsiders into this is dangerous because anybody could be an Imperial, or an opportunist looking for a few credits. We don't have the power to _guarantee _loyalty. But don't worry I'm working on it."

"Well… I was thinking… if I survived and you survived, then maybe other people did too. And we could recruit them. We can be sure of their loyalty."

"True. Theoretically speaking thousands of people from Shuuyoujo could have survived, realistically speaking, very few probably did. Because of the sheer size of this galaxy, its massive number of unexplored areas, and that the fact that the escape pods were hyperspace capable, we could search our entire lives and never find anyone. Pragmatically speaking, we should keep our eyes and ears open, but it isn't logical to spend money and time actively searching."

"Isn't it worth the time and money? Even if we find only one more person, then it is worth it. Forget the Empire for the moment, we're different from the rest of the galaxy, I don't fit in with the people around me. I've experienced things that most people have never experienced and never will. To anybody else who survived, it's going to be the same way. No matter what, people like you and me will be outsiders. We don't belong, so we got to stick together for we got nobody else. Do you really just want to leave our friends, family and loved ones adrift out there, abandoned to a cruel galaxy?"

"Things will never be as they were. In the years it will take to find them, they will have forged for themselves new lives. What right do we have to tear them away from that?"

"Who says things have to be as they were? I want a connection to my friends and loved ones, and I'm willing to adapt to get that. Also, we're not taking away from their lives, we're adding to it. Even if the end result is only a comlink communication network. We need to find them!"

"… you're right. We do need to search for them. So assuming we do find our comrades, who join our fight, and thus are able to recruit other people into a large resistance movement, what do you want to call it?"

"Why me?"

"Well it sort of is your idea. So what's the name?"

Naruto thought for a second and said,

"Nenshou-kyohakugakure"

The village hidden within the burning stars.

"That a good name Naruto, but now there is something I need to tell you."

"What?"

"Just remember though that the information was kept from you for your own safety."

"I'm not liking where this is going. Why exactly was the information kept from me? I can keep a secret, Kyuubi is proof of that."

"You keep Kyuubi secret because your childhood was such that you think that if anyone finds out about the demon they will instantly hate and loathe you. You therefore keep it secret. What I am about to tell you likely would have made you very popular and well liked."

"So why wasn't I told?"

"Because the knowledge would have caused some people to hate you and try to kill you."

"_Wow_, people who hate me, I sure am _not_ used to that."

"You were hated, but except for a few times when you were an infant no one has ever tried to kill you. The knowledge I am about to reveal would have caused a lot of people to try. And as you did not have a powerful guardian to protect you, it was deemed too risky to tell you until you were strong enough to protect yourself."

"So I'm strong enough now?"

"No. However, everyone who would have tried to kill you is most likely dead. Or if not, assuming they even find out about it, you would be really low on their priority list."

"So what the hell is the secret?"

"Naruto, your parents were very well loved and powerful ninja. They however, like many powerful figures, had many enemies. Their names were Kushina Uzumaki and Minato Namikaze. You might know the latter name better as the name of the Fourth Hokage.

"What?!"

"Also Naruto… I am your godfather."

"How is that possible?!"

"Well if you're referring to how I'm your godfather, I was a close friend of your parents. If you're referring to how they're your parents. I thought you already knew, but I guess I can give you **the talk**. How should I do this? Ok… every boy has a magical kunai that grows larger when it goes near a magical kunai holster…"

"Oh dear Kami no, that is not what I meant at all. I was just expressing my surprise at the situation. I know about … sex… already. In any case, you are the last person I want to get that kind of information from."

"Why? I have a way with the ladies."

"Or at least your wallet does."

"Well you seem to be getting a little snippy."

"I was thinking and I have a question for you".

"Ok, shoot."

"Where the hell were you?"

"Huh?"

"If you're my godfather, then isn't your job to take care of me if my parents can't? Well last time I checked a history book the Fourth Hok… I mean Father and Mother are dead, so I'll repeat, where the hell were you?!"

"Working."

"You mean working like ogling naked women?!"

"No I mean actual working. In case you have forgotten Naruto I was in active military service. I was in charge of Konoha's spy network. I had to be out there to do my job, and bringing an infant along would have endangered me, endangered you, and endangered Konoha."

"It's a network. Can't you coordinate it from Konoha?"

"There were things I can do that other people can't. My contacts would only speak to me. I had many elaborate cover identities and aliases across the continent that only I could portray. There were also things I do that I wouldn't trust someone else to do, such as breaking into a fortress to photograph sensitive documents. In addition, no member of my network had any more information than necessary to obtain their own little part of the bigger picture. My agents didn't know anybody else in the chain but me, so if they were captured that couldn't have compromised the whole network. Without me being out there, the network would have fallen apart. The fact is all of my agents were carefully placed in certain positions and locations after years of work. They couldn't have gone to Konoha to report to me, and I would never have trusted a courier or a messenger bird to transport the sensitive information. Too likely that someone would have intercepted them. The documents might have been encrypted, but I'm very paranoid. Also I give instructions to my agents in person to prevent the same problem of the orders being intercepted. I am sorry your life sucked, but I will not apologize for saving the many thousands of lives that I have with my information and actions."

"You abandoned me, indirectly made my life suck, and you're creating excuses for yourself. I used to really admire you for choosing me as an apprentice. You are such a powerful and legendary figure that you seeing value in me, greater than anyone else you could have chosen, really touched me. Not anymore, but now I know the truth, you did it out of guilt! Your failing to live up to your responsibilities forced you to train me in an attempt to make up for it. Well too little, too late. Where were you when I cried myself to asleep? Where you when I thought I would die miserable and unloved? Ok, you couldn't physically be there. Couldn't you have, I don't know, sent money, a birthday card, a letter, something which would tell me that there was someone out there who gave a damn about me!?"

"And what do you think would happen if you were linked with me? From there it would be easy to figure out your connection to Minato and Kushina. The fact is I have enemies, your dad had enemies, and your mother had enemies; without someone powerful there to protect you, it would have been suicide for you."

"Then why didn't someone take me in?"

"People have lives! You are not the center of the world. People had problems and responsibilities that had nothing to do with you. Why should they take in some kid they don't know when they had their own problems?"

"There had to be somebody."

"Ok… who?"

"… Kakashi-sensei".

"Seriously? The guy a good man and an excellent ninja but the man has got mental issues. He may seem fine now, but there are some serious cracks in his mental foundation. I know he has been in and out of therapy for years when he was a teenager. Everyone he has ever loved has died. His mother died in childbirth, he walked in on his father committing ritualistic suicide, his best male friend sacrificed his life for Kakashi, his best female friend was abducted, and 3 weeks later her broken, beaten, and raped corpse was found floating in the Akaoni river, and his surrogate father was your actual father and we all know what happened to him. At this point, Kakashi can barely take care of himself, not to mention a child."

"How about the old man?"

"Sarutobi-sensei? Ok think about that. He was a tired old man forcibly and abruptly yanked from retirement and thrust into leadership of one of the most powerful active military powers in the known world. I'm sure he would have _plenty_ of time to raise a child. And even if he had time, he wouldn't spend it on you. He would fix the horrible relationship he has with his own kids."

"How about Iruka-sensei?"

"What about him? When the attack happened, he was an innocent naïve child in the Ninja Academy who just had his parents murdered by the fox. He was an emotional mess, had no money, no resources, no home, and honestly he was not that skilled at anything. How would he have raised you and protected you? Even at the end of his life, you think he has the strength to protect you against someone like Orochimaru?"

"There had to be somebody!"

"Well there wasn't, don't you think Sarutobi looked, but he could not find anyone who was willing."

"Well you should have figured out a way. You, the man with all the information, couldn't figure out some way of providing for me? You're my godfather, that is what you are supposed to do. If you couldn't do the job, why did you become my godfather in the first place?"

"Because I never thought both your parents would die before me! I thought I was going to be like an uncle. I give you gifts, advice, fighting techniques, and a lot of sugar. I didn't think that the part of the job regarding raising you would ever come up."

"Well it did, and you didn't step up to the job."

"Look, what do you want me to do? What do you want me to say?! I can't change time. It is in the past, move on!"

Naruto was really tempted to hit Jiraiya at the moment, but resisted because he knew the man would be able to easily destroy him in a fight.

Ah screw it.

Wham.

There was a tense silence and Naruto lowered his hand. Jiraiya's right cheek was already starting to swell and bruise. The silence was broken by Jiraiya saying softly,

"You feeling any better?"

"No".

"Pity".

Covering the injury with his right hand, his hand glowed green for an instant, and when he pulled his hand away, the injury was gone.

"So Naruto, what now? You going to hate me for the rest of your life?"

"No, the fact is at this moment you are the only person I have left. Also, I know that I can't take down Palpatine and the Empire alone. So I know I will have to forgive you one day out of necessity. Until that day comes, stay the hell out of my life. That shouldn't be a problem for you, as you're so good at doing that already."

At Naruto's words, Jiraiya appeared to age 20 years. He just looked tired, weary, and sad.

"I understand Naruto."

He pulled a small strip of flimsy out of a pocket and said,

"If you ever want to talk, here's my number. Here…"

Jiraiya offered it to Naruto, who made no motion to take it.

Jiraiya after a seconds pause put the flimsy on Naruto's kitchen table.

"I guess I'll see you then... or not."

And Jiraiya disappeared in a swirl of wind.

Naruto stood motionless for a moment and then exploded into action. With a roar his fist came into contact with one of his house's durasteel walls and promptly went through it. After that, with his arm still embedded in the wall, Naruto rested his head on the durasteel and wept.

Beep beep beep.

His tears temporarily interrupted because of his comlink. Naruto answered it.

It was a voice message. Read by a particularly monotone sounding droid.

"Greetings… Naruto Uzumaki… your ship… insert name here… is now cleared for departure. We hope you visit Tatooine in the future… Naruto Uzumaki. Have an excellent day."

"I guess it is time to leave. Hey Tomo! Time to go!"

Hearing a few answering beeps from the next room, Naruto immediately started to walk towards his kitchen table. Everything he owned, he had in storage seals located on his armor. There was just one thing left in this house to take care of.

Picking up the piece of flimsy, Jiraiya left, Naruto looked at the numbers on it. The flimsy no longer had any real value as Naruto automatically memorized the number. Symbolically speaking though, the flimsy in a way represented Jiraiya and Naruto's willingness to speak to him.

In an instant not even ash remained of the flimsy as it quickly ignited and burned.


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Star Wars. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, and Star Wars belongs to George Lucas.

All thoughts are underlined

Words in ' ' are in Tenkei

Chapter 14:

Hutts were an extremely interesting species, Jabba particularly so. Having established a criminal empire at an extremely early age, (he was about 80 years old at the time. Hutts live a long time The equivalent age of 80 years for a Hutt, is about 12 years for a human.), Jabba had quickly risen to power. Now at 600 years of age, he was arguably the most powerful crime lord who ever lived. Also as the head of the Desilijic Kajidic (essentially a major party in the Hutt system of government), Jabba was one of the most powerful Hutts in the galaxy. He was often cruel, sadistic, arrogant, vain, coldly logical, and he had a sexual fascination with female humanoids that most people, (Hutt and otherwise), found incredibly disturbing. Most thought of him as evil, but he didn't think so. He couldn't care less about the laws of the Empire or any other government; they were merely the meaningless rambling and nonsense of lesser beings. The only legitimate law was Hutt law, and by that law Jabba was a model citizen. He was a law abiding being with good business acumen, who happened to run a business that destroyed many quadrillions of lives. Jabba did not particularly care about that fact. To him as with all Hutts, lesser species were see'n the equivalent of trained rats. They were sometimes amusing, occasionally useful, but ultimately expendable.

He had never met anyone who challenged that notion, though he had met a few people who stretched it a little. Some Jedi, some Sith, Ephant Mon, he remembered an Economics article published couple hundred years back that was almost Hutt-like in quality… almost, a few more that he couldn't think of at the moment, and now maybe Naruto Uzumaki.

The boy was extremely interesting. For one, he had a lot of power and an extreme willingness to use it. This was something that Jabba respected. Especially the way the boy burst into his palace. It was awe-inspiring and a little frightening. When he used that red power, Jabba was actually a little frightened. Probably some genetic remnant of before the Hutts had become deities. Second, he very rarely met humans who were so professional with their killing. He killed so easily, but at the same time emotionlessly, with the exception of Imperials. Jabba didn't know why there was such loathing, but he didn't really care. As long as the boy did his job, he could do whatever he wanted as long it didn't hurt his operations. In this case, Imperial power was so inconsequential this far from the Core worlds, that their presence or lack thereof did not affect in anyway his Outer Rim operations. Third, the boy could speak Huttese properly, which was odd. Jabba had encountered many humans in his life, some of them could speak Huttese, but none could speak it properly. The thing about Huttese was even if someone's pronunciations and inflections were perfect, without the ability to create sub-harmonics, their ability to speak was that of a mentally addled child. Naruto on the other hand could pronounce everything perfectly, and speak the sub-harmonics, which Jabba didn't think possible for a human. Jabba supposed the boy's strange abilities could be aiding his success in the language, or perhaps Naruto was some unknown species that simply looked from the outside like a human but internally was not, Jabba didn't particularly care about finding out. All he really cared about for most things were results. The current result was that Naruto spoke the language as well as a native, though with a slight accent. Those things, a reasonable price, and his ability to get the job done made Naruto very valuable.

And now Naruto wished to leave his service, which displeased him, which was not something that any one did, or at least not for long.

Currently, the boy was standing in front of him, speaking in Huttese.

"'Giant slug'. I am and always be at your service. I merely wish to venture out into the galaxy and develop my skills so I can better serve you."

Jabba internally frowned for two reasons. One of the reasons was that 'giant slug' crap. He might not know exactly what it means, but he has been alive long enough to know it was not a complement. When Naruto had said those words, the boy got scared. He may have hid it pretty well, but Jabba had been reading the faces of people for over 500 years. He knew he was insulted but he couldn't let anyone else know that. It would be damaging to his reputation if it became known he allowed a young boy to insult him to his face without consequence. Now he could have killed the boy, but Jabba was nothing if not pragmatic. He knew Naruto was more valuable to him alive than dead. So he pretended to buy Naruto's story. The way Jabba figured it, his stupid minions will buy it. His smarter minions will understand why he let Naruto live, as well as being smart enough not to say anything to anyone ever. And the rest of his minions will never say anything out of the fear that someone will take that opportunity to declare them a traitor to Jabba's court and elevate their own political position by killing them. Jabba very purposely cultivated a very cut-throat environment around him. Weed out the weak; only the strong and thus the people who most deserve to serve him will survive.

The other reason he frowned was the current situation. Naruto being conveniently nearby to handle assignments quickly was a big bonus. Therefore if the boy moves away, Naruto's value to him goes down. The problem with forcing him to stay was that Jabba knew the boy well enough to know the boy wouldn't take such an action quietly. And if Naruto was killed, than Jabba's empire loses the usage of Naruto's services all together and therefore loses even more value than if the boy just moves. Until he came up with a better solution, the best option he had was clear.

"I understand, and I wish you pleasant travels. May the skills you gain abroad earn us both great profit."

"Thank you for your leave, Lord Jabba."

* * *

He watched the boy leave the Hutt's court. Leave the fortress, as well as Jabba's favor and watchful gaze. The opportunity he had waited for had finally come. It was time.

I will feed. 

* * *

Naruto sighed, the fight with Jiraiya infringing in his mind. It was not that he couldn't understand the man's position and the actions he did, and objectively he might actually agree with those actions. However, it still hurt. Regardless of the reasons, someone was supposed to take care of him, but didn't do anything for him. They instead completely abandoned him to his fate. It brought up a lot of insecurities and fears from when he was younger about him being unlovable. If he didn't have a demon sealed within him, would Jiraiya still have abandoned him? In any case he didn't completely buy that Jiraiya couldn't do anything. The man was one of the richest and most well connected people he knew. He had to have been able to do something.

In any case, the basis for keeping the information from him was flawed. When he was younger, he was so desperate for anyone to care at all about him, and if he was told to get someone who cared he would have to keep his mouth shut, he would have damn well kept his mouth shut.

Sensing his companion's mood, Tomo beeped a few times behind Naruto. Tomo's powerful cloaking technology keeping the droid completely invisible.

Suddenly Naruto felt a jolt. It didn't hurt exactly; it simply was a tingle that for a lack of better word rippled up and down his head. Then his head started to hurt… a lot.

"Hi Naruto."

Recognizing the voice, Naruto looked up.

"Iruka-sensei?"

Standing a distance away was Iruka.

"I am glad you're all right. Sorry I have been gone so long. Explanations for what happened can wait until later. Right now, _come to me._"

Naruto started moving towards Iruka. He was so happy. The closest thing he ever had for a father was here. But as he got closer, the pain in his head got worse and worse. However, Naruto didn't care about that now.

Naruto suddenly stopped moving. The pain in his head had become extremely severe. He looked at Iruka though his pain and for a few moments the man's image shimmered. For an instant Naruto swore he saw someone else, someone with grey skin and weird tentacles on his face. However, the image of Iruka quickly returned, and Naruto dismissed what he saw as a trick of the heat and he slowly continued on. But then a missile flew over his head and collided with Iruka. The pain quickly disappeared, but Naruto at the moment didn't notice.

"NO!"

But when the smoke cleared, Iruka was not the one standing there. It was someone else. Someone he vaguely remembered from Jabba's court. He quickly realized what happened.

That thing was in his head, and Tomo just saved his life. At the moment, the former fact was more important.

The burning familiarity of Kyuubi's power began to fill his veins. Red began to tinge his vision, and the wind around him began to swirl and howl.

With a roar, Naruto shot a large gout of flame at the figure. When the smoke cleared the figure was gone.

"Who are you?!"

There was no answer.

Any animals in the area has long since run way and the desert seemed eerily quiet.

The sound was his only warning.

From behind him something burst out of the sand. The attack from the figure brought him to the ground. It was on top of him, the strange tentacles reaching for his face. Naruto with a grunt threw the figure off of him. He followed the action up with a burst of wind. Hyper concentrated and focused it hit like a train, and what it hit exploded from the impact. The only problem was what he hit was not his target, as the figure had dodged his attack and disappeared again into the sand.

It was not that the figure was that strong or fast, it was the way the figure moved, so smooth, so graceful, and not a single wasted movement. It moved like an experienced hunter. It dodged his attacks with an ease that said it had dealt with the same thing before.

Naruto sensed movement and blasted the area with a mixture of wind and flame, but missed again.

With a roar, the entire area for 30 meters around him burst into flames. When the flames faded the entire area had turned to glass. Naruto waited to see if he got the figure.

"You are indeed powerful prey, but that just means you will be so much more delicious when you are finally caught. The meal you have to work for has such a wonderful taste."

Naruto looked around but he couldn't locate the voice.

"I am not food."

"Oh I agree. You are not mere food, but rather a delicacy, a rare morsel that I must partake. That power that swirls around you has such a delectable aroma. What delicious soup you must have. But without the cover of sand how will I get near? Your mind won't fall to my spell twice. I am afraid I must put this meal on hold. The circumstances of this encounter have changed, and the likelihood of my success has gone down too much for my comfort. Goodbye Naruto Uzumaki, we **will** meet again."

The voice vanished, and Naruto waited a few minutes for anything else to happen. When nothing happened, Naruto relaxed.

Tomo floated up the stealth cloaking deactivated for the moment.

"Thanks Tomo".

Tomo gave a few beeps which in droid roughly meant "you're welcome" and "you owe me now a case of extremely high quality grade oil."

"Fine. So what the hell was that?"

A screen opened up on Tomo's body and a file started to load. Naruto has long since transferred the files he got from Lagre'ido's library over to the droid. After a second the file loaded, and Naruto proceeded to read.

"Let's see, Anzati are long lived species rumored to be immortal. Lives swathed in mystery. Need to feed on others to survive and are rumored to have strange mind control abilities as well as shape shifting powers. Also, there are rumors that whoever they feed upon change into an Anzati who are their slaves. The material they feed upon is people's brains. Oh you got to be kidding; I am being hunted by the twisted love-child of a vampire and a zombie. Let's see if there anything in here about how to kill one… damn."

After reading the article, Naruto took off for Mos Eisley.

* * *

While Bestine was the planet's capital, Mos Eisley was arguably the busiest city. The spaceport was at all types a thriving hub of activity, some of it legal, a lot of it not. Naruto had seen a lot of things on these streets, but now he was seeing something he had not seen before. Imperials… and a lot of them. They were on the corners, in the building talking to and questioning people. As Naruto paused to watch the spectacle, a stormtrooper walked up to him. Naruto noticed several stormtroopers on the rooftops and streets watching him.

"Hey kid, I have a few questions for you."

A familiar red started to creep over his vision but he forced it back, there were too many Imperials around to risk an attack. Naruto started focusing his Intent, and he adopted his local persona; he didn't want the trooper to notice anything out of place.

"Sure thing trooper, how may I help you?

"A few hours ago, the body of trooper Dace Panib was found it an alleyway near here, or at least what remained of it. The corpse was severely mutilated; the coroner believed the trooper was tortured."

"By the maker, what type of monster would do such a thing?"

"I don't know. Horrifying that someone would do this. Sickening. We suspect this individual has killed before. Over the last year, many troopers have gone missing. Trooper Panib's body is one of the few bodies that was ever found, and the only one that provides clear evidence of foul play. However, if Panib was murdered, there is a good chance the other troopers were too."

"What do you need me to do, how can I help bring this murderer to justice?"

"We are currently asking around town to see if anyone saw anything, as well as to bring in any suspects we have."

"Do you have any?"

"You."

"Excuse me?"

"Security footage from a nearby store saw Panib enter the alleyway that he died in. A few moments later you entered that same alleyway. Panib never left, but you did around 20 minutes later."

Damn it, the device should have taken out all electronic equipment in the area.

"You can't possibly think I was responsible for this atrocity do you?"

"I don't, but you are a suspect. We will need you to come down to the base, and answer a few questions."

"Of course, but I didn't see anything. I was taking a short cut to 16th avenue. I saw Panib, chatted with him for 20 minutes or so, and then left. The murder must have happened after I left. Man, if I left a few minutes later, then I could have died. I didn't do anything though, you have to believe me."

"I do, but orders are orders. The commander wants you taken in for questioning, so that's what I am going to do."

Naruto tried projecting some sympathy and trust Intent but the trooper was completely unphased.

Damn it.

Naruto released the full weight of his killing intent and froze the trooper in place. He noticed in the distance troopers turning in his direction as well as the nearby troopers were reaching for their blasters, so he acted quickly. Hoping they couldn't see what he did next in detail, he transformed into the trooper he froze, stole the man's blaster rifle, and proceeded to kill with the trooper's blaster rifle any nearby troopers who might have been close enough to see the transformation. He got nicked a few times from returning fire, but nothing serious enough to force him to drop the Henge. He then puts the rifle in the trooper's hands. Then he disappeared. From the shadows, Naruto focused his Intent and projected fear and paranoia into the trooper's mind.

Naruto then un-froze the trooper who immediately fired upon the troopers in the distance, who having noticed their ally's apparent betrayal were firing back. Unfortunately for them, the trooper that Naruto manipulated was a very good shot.

Hopefully this distraction will enough that no one remembers little old me.

Emerging from the shadows 500 meters down the street, Naruto then continued on his way. A few minutes later he felt an odd feeling. It didn't hurt exactly, but it was very tingly and slightly uncomfortable. It was similar to the feeling he had when he was attacked by the Anzati, but the feeling was not focused on his mind. Also there was a slight surge in the strange force energy in the environment that interfered with his chakra. Naruto suddenly turned around and pointed a blaster at a person walking up to him.

The man had blue eyes and a beard. His hair color appeared to have been some shade of brown when the man was younger, but now was mostly overtaken with white and grey. He had the air of someone who had seen a lot of fighting and death, but he didn't have the air of a soldier.

Completely un-phased by the blaster, the man kept walking forward until he was a few meters away. He spoke calmly,

"We need to talk."


	15. Author's Note

Dear Readers,

I realized recently that this story as it is won't work. At the rate the story is moving, and the rate I'm updating, it will take decades to finish this story. So I've decided to rewrite it. The rewritten version will be more concise, more focused, and move a lot quicker. I hope everyone will enjoy it. I'll try to get the first chapter of it up soon.

Ninja Magic


	16. Rewrite notice

Dear Readers,

The first chapter of the rewrite is posted

Ninja Magic


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